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GUIDE BSBK 



TO THE 



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HISTORICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



13Y 



mowLMcm G. moymir. 



ciisrci:?sr:Nr^xi : 
ll,OBERT CLAI^KE & CO 

1882. 



GUIDE BOOK 



MAMMOTJrl CAVE 



OF KENTUCKY 



HISTORICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND DESCRIPTIVE 



HORACE O. HOVEY 






CINCIN NATI 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO 

1882 



fV 




lo. Sjmmcs' I'll. 



25. Wooden Howl Room. 
■J6. Black Sniik(> .\\-cnue 
27. Sldc-Saddle Pit. 



PENSICO AVENUE. 

aV Revelers- Hull, 
■ill. Grand Crossiu" 
S7. Piueunple Hush. 
•»• Angelicas Urotto. 



OJe 'Bull's Concert Hall. 
Fly ('huinber. 
.Sheep Shelter. 



Corinnn's Dome. 

lilm-k Hole of Ciilcutta, 

Washington Hall. 

Snow Ball Room. 

Floral Cross and Last Rose 

of Summer. 
Paradise. 
Zoc's Grotto. 
Flora's Garden. 
Vale of Diamonds. 
(Charlotte's Grotto. 
Serena's Arbor. 
The Maelstrom. 



f 



T 



COPYIUGHT, ISS'2, 

V>y ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 



MAMMOTH CAVE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Pioneer Patriots— jSaltpetor Miners — Discovery of Mammoth Cave — 
War of 1812 — Change of Owners — The Croghan Heirs — The Guides 
— Early Literature of this Cavern — Its Geological Survey — Its Fauna 
— Mai>making under Difficulties. 

The pioneers wlio follou'ed in the wake of Daniel 
JBoone, a century ago, were thrown on their own resources 
in all respects. Gunpowder was one of the necessa- 
ries of life for men in daily peril from wild beasts and 
more savage Indians; but its importation was attended 
with expense and difficulty. Hence they sent out such 
strolling chemists as happened to be among them, to hunt 
for niter beds. These were found in considerable quanti- 
ties under the shelter of ledges at the heads of ravines. 
The jutting crags reminded them of "Gothic cathedrals 
and the ruins of baronial castles" (as one of them ex- 
pressed himself in writing to his friends), and therefore 
they called the smaller ones " Rock Houses," and the 
larger ones " Rock Castles." The soil and sand-banks, 
thus protected from the rains, proved to be richly impreg- 
nated with the coveted saltpeter, and solid masses were 
sometimes found weighing from 100 to 1,600 pounds. 
Usually, however, three men would not obtain more than 
from 50 to 100 pounds a day at the works. 

The tools and methods used were of the most primitive 
kind, and the workmen were readily induced to forsake 
a niter-bed as soon as its yield grew scanty, and were con- 
tinually searching for masses of pure niter, and hoping to 
find veins of precious ores. This led to the exploration 
of calcareous caverns, of which as many as twenty-eight 
are said to have been found in Kentucky before the year 
1800. A Mr. Fowler obtained from them more than. 



2 Celebrated American Carenis. 

]00,000 pounds of niter, and tlioy were so far from being 
exhausted that, aceordini-^ to the osthuatc of local chem- 
ists, the deposits remaining in six of them exceeded 2,000,- 
000 pounds. 

In the year 1799 a pioneer, named Baker, entered an 
arched opening near Crooked creek, in Madison county, 
about 60 miles south-east of Lexington, and proceeding a 
short distance under-ground, saw so many things to excite 
his wonder, that he returned to his cabin and took along 
•with him his wife and three children to enjoy the further 
■exploration. They carried with them a torch and a sup- 
ply of pine splinters, but no food. Advancing about 500 
yards, ^Ir. Baker unfortunately droj)ped his torch and it 
was extinguished. " For two days and nights this mis- 
erable family wandered in total darkness, without provis- 
ion and without water, though sometimes within hearing of 
a cataract which they durst not approach. At length Mrs. 
Baker, in attempting to support herself on a rock, per- 
•ceived that it was wet, and conjectured that this was 
caused by the mud which they had brought in on their 
feet. Baker immediately ascended the rock, and saw the 
light of day ! " 

This locality became known throughout the region as 
^'tlie Great Cave," and was particularly described by 
Sanmel Brown, !M. D., of Lexington, in a paper read by 
liim before the American Philosophical Society, in 1806 — 
probably the very iirst of all communications of its kind 
in this country. 

Dr. Brown describes the Great Cave as having two 
inoutiis, 646 yards a[)art, with a commodious passage for 
wagons from one to the other, the tloor having the appear- 
ance of a public road that had been much frequented. 
The level is 80 feet above that of Crooked creek, from 
which its entrance is 150 yards distant. The arch varies 
from 10 feet to 60; and the breadth averages 40 feet, 
though in some parts it is 70 or 80 feet. The narrator en- 
larges on the scenes romantic and sublime that astonish 
the beholder, when the vast chandjers are "sufficiently 
illuminated by the torches and lamps of the workmen." 



Mammoth Cave. 3 

The statement is made that the temperature of the cave 
never falls mueli below 52 degrees Fah., even in the cold- 
est winter weather, and does not rise above 57 degrees at 
any time. To this, however, a curious exception is made, 
which I give in Dr. Brown's own words : '' In one chamber 
the heat was frequently so great as to be disagreeable. 
The room is nearly circular and about 20 feet in diameter. 
The air which tills the main avenue in summer and au- 
tumn is forced into this chamber, whenever the externjd 
atmospheric air becomes so much condensed by cokl as to 
rush into the mouth of the cave; and whenever during 
the winter any portion of air in the main avenue is heated 
by fires or lamps, as this heated air can not escape by the 
mouth of the cave (for the arch descends toward the 
mouth) it ascends into this chamber and rises to the ceiling, 
where it must remain." He then compares this peculiar 
cell to the Russian vapor bath to which Count Rumford 
had recently called the public attention. 

Workmen dug down fifteen feet into the soil on the 
floor of this cave, and found it still rich in niter, although 
no animal remains are mentioned, nor Indian relics. 

The learned authority quoted next enters into the de- 
tails of preparing saltpeter for the market, claiming for it 
superiority to that found in Spain and India, and closes 
his really remarkable and historic paper with an appeal to 
the patriotism of Americans to make themselves inde- 
pendent of foreign sources of supply. "A concern for 
the glory and defense of our country," observes Dr. Brown, 
"should prompt such of our chemists as have talents and 
leisure to investigate this interesting subject. I suspect 
that we have much to learn with regard to this salt, so 
valuable in time of peace, so indispensable in time of war.'' 

Had Mammoth Cave, with its immense deposits of ni- 
trous earth, been known at the time the exhaustive de- 
scription from which I have made extracts was prepared 
(viz., in 180(>), the important fact would certainly have 
been recorded. I am led, therefore, to set aside the state- 
ment made by Bayard Taylor and others — I know not on 
what authority — that this cavern was first entered in 1802, 



4 CclchratctI Amcricai} Corcni.'i. 

and to accept tlio coninionly received tradition that it was 
discovered l)y a hunter named Hntehins, in 1800, while 
])nrsning a wounded hear. Tlie aperture hy which Ilutch- 
ins entered was small at the time, and has since hcen consid- 
erably enlarged. It is not regarded as the original mouth, 
which is supposed to have heen in reality the mouth of 
Dixon's Cave, ahout a quarter of a mile north of it, a 
chasm 50 feet wide, and once, perhaps, the outlet of a sub- 
terranean stream. 

The first purchaser of what is now held as very valua- 
ble property, was " a small, dark, wiry man of great en- 
ergv and industry," whose name was McLean, and who, 
for |40, bought the cave and 200 acres besides! He soon 
sold it to ^[r. Gatewood, a brother-in-law of the founder 
of Bell's Tavern — that celebrated hostelry of by-gone days. 
After enlarging the works, Gatewood sold them to ^lessrs. 
Gratz, of Philadelphia, and Wilkins, of Lexington, Ky., 
who brought experience and capital to aid in developing 
the hidden resources of Mammoth Cave. Their agent, 
!Mr. Archibald ^liller, emjiloyed a large number of negro 
miners, who were reported as finding there a quantity of 
nitrous earth " sufficient to supply the whole population 
of the globe with saltpeter ! " 

During the war of 1812, our government being excluded 
from foreign sources of supply, had use for all that the 
miners were able to furnish under the circumstances. 
There were lofty mountains and interminable forests be- 
tween them and the sea-board, but under the two-fold 
impetus of patriotism and high prices, Gratz and Wilkins, 
and others who embarked in the speculation, though with 
less brilliant success, transported thousands of pounds of 
the precious salt by ox-carts, and on pack-mules, mainly 
to Philadelphia. Let it be remembered by a grateful 
people that this Kentucky salt went far toward saving the 
nation in its hour of deadly peril ! 

The method of manufacture, as nearly as I have been able 
to ascertain it, was as follows : The nitrous earth was col- 
lected from various parts of the cave, by means of ox- 
carts for which roads were constructed that are in them- 



Mammoth Cave. 5 

selves surprising monuments of industry, and the soil 
thus gathered was carried to hoppers of simple construc- 
tion, each having a capacity of from 50 to 100 bushels. 
Cold water, conveyed by wooden pipes into the cave, was 
poured on the charge in each hopper, and in a day or 
two a solution of the salts would run into the vats below, 
whence it was pumped into a second set of pipes, tilted 
so as to let the liquor flow out of the cave. After boiling 
a while in the open air, it was run through hoppers con- 
taining wood ashes, the result being, if skill had been 
used in mixing materials, a clear solution of the nitrate 
of potash, which, having been boiled down sufficiently, 
was put in troughs for cooling. In about 24 hours the 
crystals w^ere taken out ready for transportation. 

Ordinar}^ " peter dirt," as the miners called it, was ex- 
pected to yield from three to five pounds of the nitrate of 
lime to the bushel ; and to make 100 pounds of saltpeter 
it would be necessary to use 18 bushels of oak ashes, or 
10 of elm, or two of ashes made b}' burning the dry wood 
in hollow trees. It is stated that " the contract for the 
supply of the fixed alkali alone, for this cave, for the year 
1814, was twenty thousand dollars ; " from which we may 
infer the extent to "which saltpeter was manufactured at 
that time. 

When the war was happily ended by the treaty of 
Ohent, the demand for saltpeter fell ofi" to such a degree 
that Messrs. Gratz and Wilkins stopped the manufacture 
at Mammoth Cave, and since then it has been valued 
mainly as a place of exhibition. The original territory of 
200 acres has groAvn to nearly 2000 acres, a portion of 
which has some value for farming purposes, while other 
parts are covered by heavy timber. Most of it was ac- 
quired for the sake of controlling all possible entrances to 
the under-lying cavern. 

Mr. Archibald Miller, aided by his brothers AVilliam 
and James, was the agent of Messrs. Gratz and AVilkins, 
and remained at the cave to look after their interests and 
to show the place to visitors. His brother-in-law, Mr. 
James Moore, at one time a wealthy merchant in Phila- 



6 Celehmfed Arncricnv Covrrn.'^. 

(lelpliia, took possession of tlio i»roporty in 1816. He be- 
cnnie mixed np, in some manner, witli tlie conspiracy of 
linrr and Blennerliassett, and was financially mined. 
Gatewood again took charge of the cave for a number of 
years, a period not marked by any important events, eitlier 
of manufacture or discovery. 

Mr. Frank Gorin bought the property in 1837, employ- 
ing Messrs. Moore and Archibald Miller, Jr., as his agents. 
Tlie circumstance of Mr. C. F. Harvey's being lost in the 
cave for 39 hours, determined the proprietor to make more 
thorougli explorations, in the course of which he found 
tlie great chamber called, in honor of him, " Gorin's 
Dome." lie also placed Stephen and Matt, as guides, who 
aided in making further discoveries ; so that, within the 
next five years, the known regions of the cave were at 
least trebled. 

At the close of the Revolutionary war, special land 
grants having been made to othccrs and soldiers in the 
vicinity of Green river, Major AVilliam Croghan, a Scotch- 
man who had distinguished himself in the United States 
army, was sent to survey and distribute them. His office 
was located at Louisville, where he also married a sister 
of General G. R. Clarke. He left five sons and two 
daughters. John, the second son, was graduated from the 
ITniversity of rennsylvania, in 1813, and studied medicine 
with Dr. Hush, of Philadelphia, afterward taking a sup- 
jDlementary course at Edinburgh. During his travels in 
the Old "World, Dr. Croghan was repeatedly asked for 
])5irticulars as to the cliief curiosity of his native state, 
and the result of his mortification at his inability to re[)ly 
was that, on returning, he visited and finally purchased 
the Mammoth Cave. He continued the management as 
he found it, but expended large sums on roads, bridges 
and buildings. Dr. Croghan never married; and when he 
died, in 1845, he left the estate to trustees, to be managed 
for his eleven nephews and nieces, the children of Col. 
George Croghan, Mr. Wm. Croghan, and Gen. Thomas S. 
Jessup. Seven of these now survive ; of whom four re- 
side in Washington, D. C, two in New York, and one in. 



Mammoth Cave. 7 

San Francisco. The business at the cave has been carried 
on by agents, among- Avhoni may be mentioned Mr. L. R. 
Proctor, Captain W. S. Miller, and Mr. Francis Klett, the 
present manager, whose extensive improvements have 
made the cave more accessible, and whose urljanity and 
excellent regime liave won many friends, 

A brief description of the guides is here in place ; for 
while others explore these subterranean realms occasion- 
ally, these men do so daily, until they become almost iden- 
tified with the rocks, rivers, and crystals found there. 




Stephen Bishop, the Oniric — >r!inimoth Cnve. 

The original guide, whose daring exploits and striking 
traits made him famous, was Stephen Bishop. He was a 
slave, half negro and half Indian, although the latter point 
is in doubt. His likeness sliows him to have had intelli- 
gence and wit, and the statements of his employers and 
visitors agree in according to him an excellent knowledge 
of geology and other sciences, so far as they related to 
caverns. He had also a smattering of Latin and Greek, 
and a fund of miscellaneous information. The remains 
of this sable son of genius now rest beneath a cedar tree 
in the tangled grave-yard near the garden. 

Matt and Xick Bransford, formerly slaves, were for 



8 Celebrated Ajik ricaii Caiwrns. 

many years associated with StopTicn. Like him, they 
picked up ideas from tourists, and on occasion can handle 
scientific terms witli considerahle skill. These old and 
faithful guides, who have now been in service about 45 
years, begin to think it is time lor them to retire on a 
pension ! 

William Garvin, another colored man, has acted as 
guide for about seventeen years, and is a general favorite, 
both on account of his perfect familiarity with all parts 
of the cave, and his exhaustless repertoire of jokes, original 
and selected. William is a person of remarkable nerve 
and physical strength, a good singer, and an admirable 
ventriloquist. What more could be desired ? 

Mr. Samuel Meredith, a white man and a native of the 
county, familiar from boyhood with underground explora- 
tions, has acted as guide for many years, and is both in- 
telligent and obliging. lie excels in producing transform- 
ation scenes, as, for instance, in the Gothic Chapel and the 
Star Chamber. 

The brothers John and Tom Lee, although but occa- 
sionally employed as guides, have made independent ex- 
plorations and some remarkable discoveries. There are 
others, also, whose services are in requisition when the 
number of visitors is unusually great. 

Civil and respectful as all these guides uniformly are, 
the tourist will do well both to heed their instructions as 
to the exhibition of the cave, and to recognize their au- 
thority while beloAV. 

The early literature of ^Mammoth Cave is scattered 
through many magazines and newspapers. The oldest 
account that has fallen under my observation is contained 
in a letter from Louisville, dated July 5, 1814, and pub- 
lished in the Medical Rcpo^sitonj, vol. xvii, pp. 391-303. It 
is accompanied by a map and a list of localities. The name 
given is the "Green River, or Mammoth Cave." The 
letter-writer describes a mummy " supposed to have been 
a queen," found a quarter of a mile from the mouth of 
the cave, but " lately deposited there from a neighboring 
cave." It is curious to note the old names. Audubou 



Mammoth Cave. 9 

Avenue was called "The Right-hand Chamber;" the 
Corkscrew, " The Mountain Room ; " The Gothic Gallery, 
the " Sand Room ; " the Gothic Avenue " The Haunted 
Room ; " and the Chief City, " The Devil's Chamber, sup- 
posed to be ten miles from the mouth ! " In the Medical 
Repository, vol. xviii, is a le' ter from Mr. Gratz, one of the 
owners of the great cave, and also an engraving of the 
famous mummy from a drawing by Rafinesque. Mr. Wil- 
kins, the other owner, wrote an account that is to be 
found in the Transactions of the American Antiquarian 
Society, vol. I., where are also letters by S. L. Mitchill, 
M.D., concerning the mummies found in Kentucky and 
Tennessee. The oft-quoted letter of Nahum Ward, M.D., 
dated Marietta, O., April 4, 1816, was tirst published in 
the ^Vorceatcr Spij, and reprinted in the Monthly Magazine 
or British RcgiMcr, July, 1816, with a map of the cave and 
an engraving of the mummy. The " Great Kentucky 
Cavern " is numbered among " The Hundred Wonders of 
the World,"' in a book with'that title, by Rev. E. C. Clark, 
published in Xew Haven, Conn., 1821. 

A survey of the Mammoth. Cave was made, in 1834-5, 
by Edmund F. Lee, C.E., who devoted three months to 
the task, and' his "Map with Notes" was published by 
James & Gazley, of Cincinnati, O. ]^ext came a brilliant 
account, in the American MontJiti/ Magazine, May and 
June, 1837, by Robert M. Bird, M.D. (author of " CalaVar"), 
with an engraving, by Sartain, of the mouth surrounded 
by the ruins of the saltpeter works. Dr. Dekay gave the 
first description of the blind fish {Amblyopsis spelccus), in 
1842, see Zoology of I^ew York, pt. 3d, p. 187. Profes- 
sors Locke, Wyman, Agassiz, Silliman, and others, have 
at different times written communications as to the phe- 
nomena of Mammoth Cave, that have appeared in the 
American Journal of Science and Art \ and an extended 
description of the cave fauna, by Dr. Telkampf, appeared, 
in 1844, with figures, in Maller''s Archiv. 

" Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the year 1844, 
by a Visitor" (supposed to be by Alexander BuUett, Esq.), 
with six cuts, ajid a map, by Stephen, the guide, Avas pub- 
lished b}'- Morton & Griswold, of Louisville, in 1845. Col- 



10 Celebrated Anierk'nn Caverns. 

lin's "History of Kentucky" (1^47), contains quite a full 
account of tliis cave. " A Pictorial Guide to the Mam- 
moth Cave," with nine cuts and eleven poems, came from 
the pen of Rev. Horace Martin, in 1851 ; and, in the same 
year, " An Officer of the Royal Artillery," gave a most en- 
tertaininc; account in Frazer's Magazine^ repuhlished in 
LUteirs Liriiifj Age, No. 348. One still more graphic was 
written in 1855, hy Bayard Taylor, for the New York Trlh- 
une, afterwards pnhlished in his "At Home and Abroad." 
Professor Wright's ''Guide Manual " was printed in 18()0, 
at Louisville. " The Mammoth Cave and its Denizens," 
by A. J). Binkerd, M.D., was published, in 1869, l)y Rob- 
ert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, O. About that time Mr. 
Charles Waldack took a number of photographs by mag- 
nesium light, and others have since been taken by Mr. 
Thumm. Those views are on sale at the cave hotel. 
Forwood's " Historical and Descriptive ^Narrative of the 
Mammoth Cave," with twelve illustrations and a map, 
passed through four editions between 1870 and 1875. It 
is from observations made in, 1867, supplemented by infor- 
mation derived fi'om Messrs. Proctor and Gorin, and 
others, and embodies the resnlts of much investigation. 
The illustrated description, l)y A. R. Waud, in Appleton's 
•'Picturesque America," vol. II., pp. 540-544, is very fine, 
artistically considered. 

The State Geological Survey of Kentucky — both the 
former one under Prof. I). D. Owen, and that now in 
progress nnder Prof. JST. S. Shaler, with an able staff of 
assistants — contains valuable materials as to the cavern 
region of the Ohio valley. Admirable monographs on 
cave animals liavc been pnblished by Professors Putnam, 
Packard, Cope, S. I. Smith and II. G. Hubbard. The lat- 
ter gives a table of the fauna of Mammoth Cave, includ- 
ing all species described down to March, 1880. Omitting 
scientific details, it may be stated, in a general way, that 
there have thus far been described, as species peculiar to 
this cavern : Vertebrata, 4; Insecta, 11; Arachnida, 6; 
Myriapoda, 2; Crustacea, 2; Vermes, 3; Polygastric In- 
fusoria, 8; and Phytolitharia, 5. (See Am. Entomoloffist^ 
Vol. III., Nos. 2 and 3, Feb. and March, 1880.) 



Mammoth, Cave. w 

To all the foregoing authorities I desire to express my 
ohligation for facts and suggestions that have Ijeen of use 
in the study of the subjects treated in this volume, and in 
my former articles in Scribner's Magazine (April and Oct., 
1880), and in other periodicals. 

The maps made of Mammoth Cave are in themselves an 
interesting study. A critic would hardly recognize them 
as representations of the same locality. Few can appre- 
ciate the ditficulties of an underground survey, amid rug- 
ged and tortuous j^aths, deep pits and lofty domes, all 
wrapped in darkness but imperfectly scattered by lamp- 
light. Imagine a map of Pike's Peak plotted from ob- 
servations taken by torchlight on a series of moonless 
midnights ! Then, again, the singular atmospheric condi- 
tions throw doubt on the Ijarometrical tests, though applied 
by men of experience. A few facts only, of this luiture, 
seem to be agreed on, and those are mentioned in their 
place in another chapter. I am informed that a set of 
levels was run by the State Geological Survey, from Green 
river to Echo river, but the results, I believe, have not 
appeared. 

It should be understood, therefore, that accuracy is not 
claimed for the accompanying map. The portion this side 
Echo, river corresponds with the recent survey made by 
Mr. Francis Klett, conducted independentl}- of all previous 
ones, and with the advantage of a long experience in the 
United States Geographical Survey. Yet he only claims 
for it an approximation to correctness, and that not in de- 
tail but in the general courses. The part beyond the rivers 
is modified from older surveys, with the assistance of my 
artist, Mr. J. Barton Smith, and may serve as an aid to 
the memory, if nothing more. It is not attempted to in- 
clude all the 223 avenues that are said to have been ex- 
plored,* and many of which are never entered by visitors. 

* " The known avenues of Mammoth Qave amount to 223, and the 
united length of the whole equals 150 miles. The average width is 7 
yards, and the height the same. About 12,000,000 cubic yards of cav- 
ernous space have here been excavated by calcareous waters and at- 
mospheric vicissitudes." Owen's Geological Survey of Kentucky, Vol. I., 
page 81. 



CHAPTER II. 

Location and Geological Relations — White's Cave — Salt Cave — Short 
and Long Caves — Proctor's Cave — Diamond Cave — Grand Crystal 
Cave — Mammoth Cave without a Kival — Cave City — A Stage-coach 
Ride — A Charming Resort — Hotel evolved from a Log Cabin — The 
Outfit — Necessary Regulations — Entrance to Mammoth Cave — Green 
River — Dixon's Cave — A Noble Vestibule — The Iron Gate — Blowing 
Caves — A Changeless Realm. 

The cuvernoiis limestone of Kentucky covers an area 
of 8,000 square miles, and varies in thickness from 10 feet 
to 300 or 400,- the average, perhaps, being about 175 feet. 
This rock shows few traces of dynamic disturbance, but 
has been carved by acidulated water, since the Miocene 
epoch, into numberless caverns. 

The absence of running streams is one of the striking 
features of the region, explained by the fact that nearly 
all the rivulets have long ago eaten their way through to 
the drainage level, and re-appcar as large springs feeding 
rivers of considerable 'size. It is said that one may, in 
certain directions, travel fifty miles without crossing run- 
ning water. The voyager along such rivers as exist, Avill 
observe, at intervals, arches in the bluffs, whence the 
Avaters of subterranean streams emerge ; and should he 
explore these openings, he would find them the entrances 
to caverns ascending by tiers toward the general surface 
of the country. And were he to make his way from stage 
to stage — a thing not often possible — he would at length 
come out into a valley shaped like an inverted cone, along 
whose sides grow bushes and trees, usually matted into a 
dense thicket. These valleys are called " sink-holes," and 
they serve to drain the surface around them. These sink- 
holes are said to average 100 to the square mile ; and, ac- 



Mammoth Cave. 13 

cording to Shaler, the State Geologist, " there are at least 
100,000 miles of open caverns beneath the surface of the 
carboniferous limestone in Kentucky." 

Several small caves have gained a measure of celebrit}^ 
partly by reason of their own attractions, and partly be- 
cause they supply some feature in which the great cavern 
is supposed to be deficient. A few of these may here be 
mentioned. 

AV^hite's Cave, half a mile from Mammoth Cave, is re- 
markable for the beauty and variety of its stalactites, and 
should be visited by any one who can spare an hour or two 
for the purpose. It is really a section of Mammoth Cave, 
and belongs to the Croghan estate. The exact point of 
communication is supposed to be with the extremity of 
Little Bat Avenue and Mammoth Dome, though no one 
has yet made his way through. The entire length of this 
grotto is 500 yards. 

Salt Cave, also near to Mammoth Cave and belonging to 
the same proprietors, rivals it in the magnitude of some 
of its avenues, but is more especially noted for the multi- 
plicity of its relics of prehistoric occupancy. It is' diffi- 
cult of access, on account of the loose and jagged rocks 
that have fallen from the roof. Prof. Putnam explored it 
for a long distance, finding fire-places, piles of fagots, cast- 
off sandals, and other things described more fully else- 
where. 

Short Cave is noted for its mummies, found by the salt- 
peter miners, in 1813, and transferred to Mammoth Cave. 
There was also the Long Cave, and both were worked for 
niter in former days. They are in the vicinity of Glasgow, 
Kentucky. 

Proctor's Cave is three miles from the Mammoth Cave. 
It is represented as having a wonderful succession of 
domes, and an endless variety of stalactites, with many 
gypsum rosettes and other " formations." It is entered by 
an easy stairway, and plank walks are laid along some of 
the avenues. Guides and lamps are furnished, and about 
three miles of the cave are said to be open to the public". 
The principal attractions, as enumerated by Dr. AYright, 



^4 Celebrated American Caverns. 

arc the following: the Hercules Dome, Coral Chamber, 
Cactus Hall, the (Corinthian Dome, the Curtain Dome, 
Ellin Grotto, Hall of Pyramids, Drapery Hall, and Alad- 
■tlin's Palace. This is certainly a tine hill of fare, and vis- 
itors find the feast to correspoiul to the jtromises. 

The Diamond Cave has also won celebrity by reason of 
its beautiful and elaborate formations and display of spark- 
ling crystals. Prof. N. S. Shaler says: "Diamond Cave 
is the most beautiful of the hundred or more I have visited 
in various parts of the world." 

T^he Grand Crystal Cave, near Glasgow Junction, be- 
longs to Mr. Thomas Kell3^ who has favored me with a 
written description ; from which it a|)pears that it has none 
of those wide and deep rivers and long paved roads, that 
some wag described as found in it. But it really is a fine, 
large cavern, some three miles long, with several large 
domes and a number of beautiful springs. 

It is significant that the custom is to compare these small 
caves with Mammoth Cave; and the process is never 
reversed. I^o writer on Mammoth Cave ever took pains 
to say that it was a rival of any other on earth. The 
general feeling was well expressed by the driver of the 
stage-coach, who said to me, that " to go from any other 
cave to Mammoth Cave, w^as like going from a log-cabin 
to a palace ! " 

Mammoth Cave may be regarded, then, as the noblest 
specimen of the 500 caves found in Edmondson county, 
and is certainly the largest known in the world. Its exact 
location is 37° 14' X. latitude, and 80° 12' W. longitude. 
It is easily reached by trains on the Louisville and ITash- 
ville Railroad all of them stopping at Cave City. This clus- 
ter of houses amid the cornfields is by rail 85 miles S. S. 
W. of Louisville, and ten miles from the Mammoth Cave 
Hotel, with which it is connected by a stage-line. The 
road, which is good as compared wntli others in the region, 
winds among the hills, in and out among the sink-holes, 
with here and there a bold or picturesque bit of scenery, 
until it gains the hiHi table-land extendino^ to the bluffs 
of Green River, on which the hotel stands. 



Mammoth Cave. 15 

A bugle flourish heralds the arrival of passengers, and 
"brings around the coach a throng of guests expecting 
friends, or curious to see strangers, and plenty of negro 
servants oftering to take care of the luggage. 

The hotel register shows an aggregate of from 2,000 to 
3,000 visitors a year. Many of these come from the ]^orth, 
and a few from various parts of Europe, drawn by their 
curiosity to behold tliis far-famed locality. The majority, 
however, are from Louisville, Kashville, Memphis, Ifew 
Orleans, and other cities of the Sunny South ; and he who 
wishes to meet the best types of southern society, will be 
sure of finding them here. 

The spot is a charming resort, aside from its peculiar 
attraction — the cave. The region around it is a hunter's 
paradise, in which quail and grouse abound, and not a few 
wild turkeys and deer. The grounds have been laid out 
with taste, ornamental shrubbery being interspersed among 
ancient oaks, over-shadowing a well-kept lawn. Exten- 
sive gardens supply the hotel with fresh vegetables of 
every kind, and the table is furnished amply with whatever 
the season and the market may afford. 

Tlie hotel itself is an architectural curiosity. The origi- 
nal cabin, built by the miners in 1812, still stands and is 
used as a wash-house. iSText came a more stylish log-house 
with a wide hall between two large rooms. As visitors 
multiplied the cabins also multiplied, until thc}^ stood in a 
long row. These isolated structures were, at a later day, 
connected with each other and weather-boarded, the halls 
and rooms remaining unchanged. Then a spacious frame- 
house was erected in front, with offices, parlors, ball-room, 
and other appointments in modern style. Finally wide 
verandas were added, having about 600 feet of covered 
portico. The structure thus evolved from a log-cabin 
germ, is shaped like the letter L, and a more airy, delight- 
ful place can not be found in the State of Kentucky! 
Loitering amid the long colonnade, on the evening of our 
first arrival, we looked out between the tall white pillars, 
and the night- air floating through the noble grove of aged 
oaks and across the blue-grass lawn, seemed redolent of 



1Q Celebrated American Caverns. 

romantic associations. TIow many thonsands of tourists, 
savants, and lovers have licrc strolled in the moonlight I 
At 11 r. M. the hiind left the ball-room for the veranda, 
and, according to their custom, gave the signal for retiring 
1)3' playing "Home, sweet home;" and the next morning, 
at six, the same musicians awoke us by jDlaying " Dixie " — 
that tune dear to every Southern heart ! 

The convenience of visitors is consulted by the establish- 
ment of two principal lines of cave exploration, designated, 
as the Long Route and the Short Route the fees for which 
are, respectively, three and two dollars, including the 
services of a competent guide, Avith lamps, fire-works, and 
luncheon-basket. Special terms are made for tourists 
wishing to make a leisurely exploration, and also for large 
parties. Facilities are likewise furnished, if desired, for 
visiting White's Cave, and other caves in the viginity. 

It should be added, to correct an erroneous impression, 
that "while guarding their property rights, the management 
of the cave has always encouraged scientific investigation, 
!No restraints were laid on the members of the American 
Assox-'iation, when they visited it, at the close of the Cincin- 
nati meeting, except those heartily approved of by them- 
selves. And I take this opportunity of expressing my ap- 
preciation of the aid given me by the present and the former 
manager, and of the faithful assistance rendered by the 
guides in my explorations. 

The regulation hours for entering the cave are 10 a. m, 
and 7 p. m. — a provision necessary for the welfare of the 
guides, and suited to the general convenience of the guests. 
The lamp-cabin faces the garden. There, as the hour ap- 
proaches, the guides may be seen trimming their lamps, 
and preparing the outfit of the visitors whom they are to 
escort. The lamp used is a simple aflair for burning lard- 
oil, and swings from four wires twisted into a handle, with 
a tin shield to protect the hand. Each visitor is expected 
to carry one of these lights, but it is not given to him till 
he enters the cave. 

The guide's appearance is unique as he stands ready for 
duty. jS'o uniform is worn, but each, white or black, 



3I(i'mmoih Cave. 



17 



dresses according to liis own taste. The bunch of lamps, 
sometimes strung on a stick if there are many of them ; 
the flask of oil swung by the side; the oddly-sliajtcd bas- 
ket carried on tlic other side, containing an assortment of 
chemicals for illuminating the hirger rooms, together with 
any thing else that may be needed — makes a queer tout en- 
semble. 

At the ringing of a large bell the party to go in on that 
trip gather in the garden, clad in any dress that suits the 
wearer; the ladies often donning a gymnastic dress 
trimmed, perhaps, with spangles and tiny bells; while 
eas}' shoes, closc-titting caps, and canes are desirable for 
all who consult their own comfort. 



-\ 




Matt., the Gallic — Mammoth Cave. 

The entrance to Mammoth Cave is reached by a shady 
path down a wild ravine, and is about 300 yards from the 
hotel on the bluff. Another hotel stood, formerly, in front 
of the entrance, but it was burned about fifteen years ago, 
and the scorched trees carry the scars of the tire. A plat- 



18 Ccldirafcd American Carenis, 

form has been leveled oft' and furnished with rustic seats, 
where, on tiic hottest days of niid-sunnner, one may enjoy 
refreshing coolness. It is 118 feet below the summit of 
the l)luft', and 104 feet above the level of Green river, 
which flows along at the distance of about half a mile, and 
furnishes excellent boating and fishing for those who aro 
fond of such sport. The waters of this stream are remark- 
able for issuing mainly from caves ; for which reason they 
are never frozen, even in the coldest winters, and are a 
refuge for steamboats and other craft, when the Ohio is 
obstructed by ice. 

The air, as well as the water, of the cave is of uniform 
temperature the year round. The mercury in the set of 
Smithsonian thermometers kept at the hotel, may have 
indicated 100° when you began your walk down into this 
shady dell, but at the cave's mouth it falls to 66° at noon, 
and 65° at night, with very little regard to what kind of 
weather the rest of the world is having. Stand on this 
bench of stone and lift your hand above your head, and 
there you will find the fervid heat again. The current of 
cold air may be traced for a long distance before it min- 
gles with the mass of common atmosphere. Within the 
cave, as we shall have occasion to observe, the temperature 
is several degrees lower than at the mouth. 
* As I have already remarked, the ancient outlet of the 
subterranean region before us was through what is now 
known as Dixon's Cave. A small opening on our left as 
we stand facing the present entrance, points in the direc- 
tion of Dixon's Cave, but the guides say there is no open- 
ing through, although persons in one cave can make them- 
selves heard in the other, as was proved by the miners in 
1812, whose picks could be heard as stated. 

Mammoth Cave has a noble vestibule! Amid tulip 
trees and grape-vines, maples and ])utternuts, fringing 
ferns and green mosses, is the gate-way to this under- 
ground palace. The fingers of a rippling rill pried the 
rocks apart, perhaps ages ago, and when the roof fell in, 
this chasm that we see remained. The rill still runs, and 
from a frowning ledge above it leaps fifty feet to the rocks 



31ammoth Cave. 19 

below, where it instantly disappears as if its work were 
done. The arch lias a span of seventy feet, and a winding 
flight of seventy stone steps conducts us around the lovely 
cascade, into a roomy ante-chamber under the massive 
rocks. 

The prevailing coolness and uniformity of temperature 
led the late Dr. Croghan to excavate a deep hollow here to 
serve as an ice-house. 

The passage-way suddenly grows very narrow, at a point 
about 300 feet within, and here there is an iron gate made 
of rude bars crossing each other. This was built by Capt. 
"W. S. Miller, in 1874, as a safeguard against secret sur- 
veys, spoliation, and the escape of fugitives from justice. 
Each guide carries a key, and the gate is unlocked and 
locked again for every party that may enter. 

The current of air that had already been quite noticea- 
ble, increases to a gale as we cross the portal, so strong 
indeed that our lamps are blown out. This phenomenon is 
due to several causes operating together. The most ob- 
vious one is the difference of temperature between the air 
within and that without. During most of the year in this 
bland climate the outside air is warmer than that of the 
cave, and therefore the current is outward. But when it 
is otherwise, the current is reversed and blows into the 
cave. It is not necessary to assume the existence of some 
lower opening as a cause for a ventilating current; yet, if 
there are such openings, they may help to keep the air in 
motion. 

Prof. Silliman, who visited the cave in 1852, offered still 
another explanation. Regarding the mouth of the cave 
as the only communication between the external air and 
the vast labyrinth of galleries stretching away for miles in 
the limestone, he accounts for the purity of the air on 
chemical principles. Calling attention to the incredibly 
extensive niter beds, he says: "The nitrogen consumed 
in the formation of the nitrate of lime must have its pro- 
portion of free oxygen disengaged, thus enriching this 
subterraneous atmosphere with a larger portion of the ex- 
hilarating element." The result would be that the cave- 



20 Celebrated American Caverns. 

air, being botli moi-o pure and more dense than tliat out- 
side, wonhl exi)and and How outward wliencver pressure 
was lifted by a rise of temperature above its own, which 
remains constant. 

The word for cave, both in Latin and Greek, signifies 
"a brca(/iinf/-place" as if these places were the mighty 
lungs of Mother Eartli, through which she inhales and 
exhales the vital air. The classic fable of ^Eolus also . 
comes to mind, in which the god of storms is represented 
as confining all the winds in a vast cavern, where he has 
liis throne.* 

The current of air dies down, as we advance, and only 
a few yards beyond the Iron Gate we have no diffieulty in 
relighting onr lamps. Here we catch the last glimpse of 
daylight shining in through the entrance, and all that lies 
beyond us is in absolute darkness. A strange sensation is 
usually felt by the visitor at this point, and occasionally 
one is found who shrinks back from the journey he has 
undertaken. The story is told of a Scotchman who had 
come to America as a tourist, led to do so by the hope of 
seeing the great cave, as a special object of attraction ; but, 
when he reached this spot, and found to his surprise that 
it was dark in the cavern, he positively refused to enter! 

Most visitors, however, find a certain romantic charm, 
on entering these regions of perpetual silence, where the 
pleasing alternation of day and night is unknown, as is 
also the change of the seasons, summer and winter being 
alike, and vernal and autumnal airs the same. AVhatevcr 

* There are many " blowing caverns " in exlstenoo, and in some of 
them the blast is marvelous and inexplicable. 1 lind the following 
statement in Johnson's Physical CJeography, though I do not vouch 
for its correctness: "From a blowing cave in the Alleghany moun- 
tains, 10(1 feet in diameter, the current of air is so strong as to keep 
the weeds prostrate to the distance of sixty feet from its mouth. But 
the most extraordinary example is the great eave of Ouybe, of un- 
known extent, in central Asia. The tempests that rush from it are 
sometimes so violent as to carry off eveiy thing on the road into an 
adjoining lake! The wind coming from the interior of the earth i:5 
said to be warm in winter, and so dangerous that caravans often stop 
for a whole week till the temjiests have subsided!" 



Mammoth Cave. 21 

tromeiidous energies may once liuvc hurled the loose rocks 
to the floor that now lie scattered around, no convulsion 
has di.sturl)etl the strata forages, and there is no safer place 
above ground than is here below. The loudest thunder- 
storm may roll across the heavens, but its din does not in- 
vade tiic profound (^uiet of these deep vaults. 




OtTLOPHOT.TTRS, OH fuUVED CnYSTAI.S OK riTPSXTM. 



CHAPTER HI. 

The Main Cave — The Narrows — Saltpeter Works — "Rotunda — Audu- 
bon's Avenue — Bat Kooms — Skeletons — Temperature of Mammoth 
Cave — Kentucky Cliffs — Methodist Church — A Subterranean Sermon 
— Standing Rocks — Grand Arch — Water-clock — Wandering Willie's 
Spring — Grotesque Fancies — Giant's Coffin — Acute Angle — Rude 
Monuments — Stone Cottages — A Strange Sanitarium — Star Chamber 
— A pleasing Incident — Salts Room — Proctor's Arcade — Kinney's 
Arena — Wright's Rotunda — Black Chambers — Cataracts — Solitary 
C'hambers — Fairy Grotto — Chief City — St. Catherine's City — End of 
Main Cave. 

Whatever route one takes, he must traverse for a longer 
or shorter distance, what is fitly designated as the Main 
Cave, hecause it is like a great trunk, from -which the 
avenues seem to branch. I shall, therefore, devote this 
chapter to its description, together with some of the less 
frequented places not now included in any regular route. 

For perhaps fifty yards, after leaving the Iron Gate, the 
way lies under a low ceiling, and is walled in by fragments 
of rock piled up by the miners. Beyond the jSTarrows, as 
this passage is called, and where the way grows wider, 
there is a well-marked cart-road, and places where the 
oxen were tied up to be fed, corn-cobs also lying scattered 
around. The carts could not have been driven in through 
the Narrows, but were brought in piecemeal and put to- 
gether again inside. The oxen, likewise, were unyoked 
and led in singly. Wooden pipes are laid in the earthen 
floor, each being about 20 feet long and 10 inches in di- 
ameter, bored lengthwise and joined together by iron 
bands. Such of them as were for conveying water into 
the cave are decayed badly, while those used to conduct 
the alkali out to the boilers are in excellent preservation. 



Mammoth Cave. 23 

Suddenly the roof lifts above our heads, and we are in 
the Rotunda, located, it is said, directly under the dining- 
room of the hotel. On our right are three huge vats, 
built of oak plank, and partly full of nitrous earth. The 
tall frame that once held the pump is now made useful for 
holding any superfluous wraps we may feel like leaving — 
for it is not well to be too warmly clad. 

The area around us, including about half an acre, is rug- 
ged with heaps of rubbish that might have been leveled 
long ago, had it not been for their flavor of antiquity, and 
the guide's satisfaction in telling visitors that " these piles 
of lixiviated earth are monuments of the War of 1812!" 

Looking aloft, we are impressed with a sense of the mag- 
nitude of the room we have entered, but, when we come 
to figures we miss the accustomed objects of comparison. 

" Guess how wide this chamber is ! " says the guide. 

One thinks it can not be less than 150 feet ; another says 
200 or 250 ; and yet another is sure it is fully 300 feet. 

" Guess how high it is ! " 

"We look up to the dim ceiling and estimates vary again. 
To one it seems 50, to another 80, to a third, 100 feet high. 

The lack of charity shown for errors in guesswork is 
sometimes very amusing to one who has used the tape- 
line in underground surveys, and knows how easy it is to 
be deceived in mere estimates of distances. The atmos- 
phere of the cave is optically pure ; i. e. no motes nor dust 
floats in it, and therefore the rays of light are not distrib- 
uted a^s in ordinary air; while at the same time, as it is 
also chemically pure, the lamps burn very brightly. This 
combination of causes leads to a confusion of ideas as to 
the nearness or remoteness of objects. 

Apply the tape-line to those two arches that open out 
from the Rotunda. One is found to have a span of 46, and 
the other of 70 feet! Our path lies through the latter, 
but let us make a brief digression into the other that 
trends away to the right. 

This is Audubon's Avenue, so named in honor of the 
famous naturalist. It used to be called Big Bat Room, 
and the branch from it, running to Crevice Pit, was called 



24 Celebrated American Caverns. 

Little Bat Room — a title that clings to it yet. Here myr- 
iads of bats take up their winter quarters, congregating 
for the purpoi^e from all tlie region around. Deposits of 
bat-guano abound, and this is supposed to bo connected 
with the quantities of nitrous oartli, which is richest here. 
Not a stone in those two rooms but what has been upturned 
for "pcter-dirt;" and one can not refrain from admiring 
the energy and diligence of those old-time minors. Au- 
dubon's Avenue, as measured by mo, is three quarters of 
a mile long, to where it ends in a group of stalactites. It 
is seldom visited. 

The minors are said to have exhumed two skeletons, in 
1811, in the Rotunda, at the entrance to Audubon's Ave- 
nue : one, that of a child ; the other of a giant seven or 
eight feet in height! ISIr. Gorin, as quoted by Dr. For- 
wood, states positively, that " no mummies wore ever found 
in Mammoth Cave; and that no bones, either human or 
of the lower animals, except the two skeletons already 
spoken of, were ever found therein." 

Before proceeding further, it may be as well to speak of 
the temperature of Mammoth Cave. It has been roughly 
estimated that twelve million cubic yards of limestone 
have been displaced by this immense excavation ; and 
the importance occurred to me of ascertaining exadhj 
the temperature of such a body of subterraneous air. 
On inquiry I learned that this had never been accurately 
done. 

Hence I made a series of observations in 1878, that sat- 
isfied me of the need of still more careful work. Accord- 
ingly, in 1881, armed with two standard thermometers, 
one a Casella from the Kew Observatory, England, and 
the other a Green from Winchester Observatory at Xow 
Haven, Conn., I took a number of observations with the 
utmost care. Among my conclusions were the following : 
That the highest degree reached at any time in any part 
of Mammoth Cave is 5G° Fah.; and the lowest 52;i° Fah. : 
the mean for summer being 54°, and for winter, 5o°. The 
latter is probably the true temperature of the earth's crust 
in the rcj^ion where this cave is located. 



Mammoth Cave. 25 

The above conclusions arc confirmed by the readings of 
an ordinary thcrnionietcr placed by Mr. Klett in the Ro- 
tunda and left there till it was, so to speak, acclimated. 
This gentleman reports, as the result of almost daily in- 
spection by himself or the guides, that during the period 
of six months, the mercury did not rise above 54° nor fall 
beloAV 53° Fah., the fair inference being, that there was 
not, at any time, a variation of more than one degree 1* 

At a point some distance beyond the Rotunda, and ex- 
actly half a mile by my pedometer, from the top of the 
hill, the guide calls our attention to a shelf of rock on the 
left, and informs us that there is the entrance to " The 
Corkscrew." This is a short-cut by which visitors, on re- 
turning from the Long Route, save themselves a mile or 
two of traveling. 

Advancing in the Main Cave, we pass under over-hang- 
ing ledges called the Kentucky Cliffs, and about four feet 
from the floor we examine a cluster of little openings, like 
pigeon-boxes, that show the peculiar action of the water 
by which they were eaten out. 

"We next come to the Methodist Church, about eighty 
feet in diameter and forty feet high, where those ancient 

*As this is a matter that has been under dispute, former obsei'vations 
by scientific observers having agreed on 50° Fah. as the correct temper- 
ature, I give below a table of my main observations, vrhich were most 
carefully made with practically perfect instruments, on the 13th, and 
loth days of August, 1S81 : 

At tho hotel on the hill the mercury indicated 92 dej. Fah. 

At the mouth of the cave (at noon) Go^a " '• 

" " " (7P. H. ) CO "■ 

At the Iron Gate, 100 yards within, ■\vhcrc the current is strongest 52/^ " " 

In tho Rotunda ( 1.000 yards within) 53 " 

In Audubon's Avenue 54 " " 

In Little Eut Avenue 5-t " 

In tho Gotliic Avenue (oldest and driest portion) 50 " " 

Iw Richardson's Spring (in tho water) 54 

In the Arched Way 54;i •• 

At the Bottomless Pit (top) 54 " 

" " (midway) 53 •' 

,' •' (at the bottom) 53 " " 

In tlie Mammoth Dome (top, 2o0 feet above bottom) 54 '■ ■' 

" " (midway; 53^^ •' 

" " (bottom) 53 " 

At the Echo River (in the Avater) 55 " 

" " (inthcair) 5G " 

•' " (where it empties iu Green River) £3 



26 Celebrated Amniran Caverns. 

miners used to licar the Gospel preached by itinerant min- 
isters, who sought their welfare. The logs that served for 
benches are still in position, and many a sermon has been 
delivered from the rocky pulpit since the days of the pio- 
neer worshipers. The writer can not soon forget a re- 
ligious service he had the privilege of attending in this 
natural temple, one summer Sabbath. The band did duty 
as orchestra, the guests and guides were seated around the 
pulpit in decorous order, the servants from the hotel were 
a little in the back-ground, the walls were hung with a 
hundred lamps, and the scene itself was beautiful. Then 
the psalm arose, led by the instruments, and waves of har- 
mony rolled through those rocky arches till they died 
away in distant corridors. The text from which the cler- 
gyman, himself a visitor, wove his discourse was peculiarly 
adapted to the place and the occasion : John xiv: 5, ^'■Hoio 
can we Jaioio the way .?" 

For the next 150 yards the old cart ruts run between 
mountainous heaps of "lixiviated earth," and the hoof- 
prints of the oxen remain as if they had lately drawn loads 
to the hoppers. Here arc more ruins of niter-works, eight 
huge vats, lines of wooden pipes, pump-frames, and other 
si^ns of former activity. What a busv set those old fel- 
lows must have been ! One can almost credit their boast 
that they could dig saltpeter enough from Mammoth Cave 
to supply the whole world. 

Leaving, for the present, the Gothic Galleries, where 
these ruins lie, we pursue our way under the Grand Arch, 
about sixty feet wide and fifty high, and extending for 
many hundred feet. On our left are the Standing Rocks, 
four in number, thirty feet long, and weighing may be 
twenty tons apiece. What a shaking there must have 
been when they fell from the lofty arch above and buried 
themselves in this upright position in the earthen floor ! 

New objects of interest meet us at every step, as we ad- 
vance. Durintra moment's pause we are startled bv what 
seems the loud ticking of a musical time-i)ioce. It is but 
the measured melody of water drip[)ing into a basin hid- 
den behind the rocks. It is only a small basin, and the 



3Iammoih Cave, 27 

drops fall l)ut a few inches, yet siicli are the acoustic 
effects of the arch that they can he heard for a lonjr ways, 
as they monotonously fall, drop hy drop, just as, perhaps, 
they have fallen for a thousand years. 

Not far from this natural water-clock, is a symmetrical 
recess chisled by a tiny rill, whose limpid water is col- 
lected in a pool. The story is told of a blind hoy who 
raml)lcd over the country, winning a precarious living by 
his violin, and who, as lie said, was resolved to see the cave 
for himself. lie lost his way, and when found by his 
companions, was quietly sleeping beside this basin, which 
ever since has been called "Wandering Willie's Spring." 

Singular effects are produced by the devices of the 
guides. At a certain spot we are requested by William to 
stand still while he goes back a little ways and burns a 
blue light. The result is a splendid view of the Grand 
Arch, but the guide's pride is in a shadow profile cast by 
the projecting buttresses. lie assures us that it is an exact 
likeness of George Washington, and points out the famil- 
iar features of the Father of our Country. In case En- 
glishmen are along, William tells them that he sometimes 
thinks it looks more like the Duke of Wellington. He 
was caught one day telling a simple-hearted German that 
it Avas the profile of Bismarck. 

The incrustations of gypsum stained by the black oxide 
of manganese, seem to cut gigantic silhouettes from the 
ceiling of creamy limestone. At first we ridicule these 
fancies, but at last they fascinate us. Wild cats, buffaloes, 
monkeys and ant-eaters — indeed, a whole menagerie is on 
exhibition, including the old manmioth himself, and Bar- 
num's fat girl. There is an especially fine side-show of a 
giant and giantess playfully tossing papooses to and fro. 

It is well to observe the large rock on our right A^ery 
carefully, not only for the interest it excites by its singular 
resemblance to a mighty sarcophagus, but because the 
Giant's Coffin, as it is called, is one of the most important 
land-marks in the cave. It equals in size one of the 
famous blocks of Baalbek, being forty feet long, twenty 
wide, and eight or more deep. Often as I have passed^ it, 



28 



Celebndiil Aiiicrlcan Caverns. 



whether iilonc or with u Imndrcd companions, it has ever 
Leen with a feeling as il I had intruded into some sacred 
mausoleum. This ponderous rock hides behind it the 
crevice that, until recently, was the only known way of 
access to the wonderful region of i»its, domes and rivers, 
that we are to visit another day. 




The Giant's Coffix. 



At a point 100 yards beyond the Giant's Coffin, the 
trend of the Main Cave turns upon itself at an acute angle, 
on the left, and sweeps around in a magniflceut amphithe- 
ater on the right. This enchanting phico f>hould not be 
hastily passed. The effect of iirc-works here is remark- 
ably brilliant, and the sublime scene thus illumined is one 
to be remembered long. 

The apex of the acute angle is marked by McPherson's 
monument, a rude pile of stones in memory of a gallant 
soldier. More than 300 such monuments have been erected 
in different portions of the cave, in honor of various indi- 
viduals, literary institutions, and the several States of the 
Union. Some of these pillars reach from floor to roof, 
each tourist who chooses to do so, adding a stone. An 



Mammoth Cave. 



29 



incidental benefit of the custom is that it has helped to 
clear the paths. 




A Strange SAxiTARiua. 

The roofless remains of two stone cottages are next vis- 
ited, as having a melancholy interest on account of their 
history. These, and ten frame ones, now torn down, were 
built in 1843 for the use of fifteen consumptive patients, 
Vv'ho here took up their abode, induced to do so by the 
uniformity of the temperature, and the highly oxygenated 
air of the cave, which has the purity without the rarity of 
the air at high altitudes. The second stone house was a 
dining-room ; all the rest were lodging rooms, and were 
well furnished. The cottages were not all at this spot. 
One was about 100 yards within Audubon's Avenue; in 
which a Mr, Mitchell, from South Carolina, lived for five 
months, and then died. He was buried in the little ceme- 
tery near the cave, and his body was afterward taken away. 
The next cottage was near AVandering Willie's Spring. 
Still another was erected in Pensico Avenue. All the 
others, nine in number, stood in a line, about 30 feet 
apart, extending from the acute angle onward. The 



30 Celebrated American Caverns. 

experiment was an utter failure ; as was also the piti- 
ful attempt on the part of these poor invalids to make 
trees and shruhbery grow around their dismal huts. The 
open sunshine is as essential to rosy health as it is for 
green leaves. 

The salubrity of the cave, so far as its effects on the 
spirits and health of visitors are concerned, is decidedly 
marked. The air is slightly exhilarating, and sustains one 
in a ramble of five or ten hours, so that at its end he is 
hardly sensible of fiitigue. In one of the earliest accounts 
of the cave, published in 1832, it is said that " the niter 
diggers were a famously healthy set of men ; " and that, 
on humanitarian grounds, it was customary to employ la- 
borers who were in feeble health, " who were soon restored 
to good health and strength, though kept at constant la- 
bor; and more joyous, merry fellows were never seen." 
It certainly is noticeable that most tourists, whether it is 
due to the delicious air or some other happy cause, gen- 
erally mingle a jocund feeling with the awe and solemnity 
that one would suppose should be awakened by ecenes so 
sublime. 

A strangely beautiful transformation scene is exhibited 
in the Star Chamber, a hall from 200 to 500 feet long ( ac- 
cording to the place you measure from ), about 70 feet wide 
at the iloor and narrowing to 40 at the ceiling, which is 
60 feet above our heads. The light gray walls are in 
strong contrast to the lofty ceiling coated with black gyp- 
sum ; and this, again, is studded with thousands of white 
spots, caused by the efflorescence of the sulphate of magne- 
sia. The guide bids us seat ourselves on a log bench by 
the wall, and then collecting our lamps, vanishes behind a 
jutting rock; whence, by adroit manipulations, he throws 
shadows, flitting like clouds athwart the starry vault. The 
eflect is extremely fine, and the illusion is complete. The 
ceiling seems to have been lifted to an immense distance, 
and one can easily persuade himself that by some magic 
the roof is removed, and that he looks up from a deep 
canon into the real heavens. 



Mammoth Cave. 31 

"Good night," says the guide, "I will see you again in 
the morning ! " 

With this abrupt leave-taking he plunges into a gorge, 
and wo are in utter darkness. Even the blackest midnight 
in the upper world has from some quarter a few scattered 
rays ; l)ut here the gloom is without a gleam. In the ab- 
solute silence that ensues one can hear his heart beat. 
The painful suspense is at length broken by one of those 
outbursts of laughter that come when least expected ; and 
then we ask each other the meaning of this sudden deser- 
tion. But, while thus questioning each other, we see in 
the remote distance a faint glimmer, like the first streak 
of dawn. The light increases in volume till it tinges the 
tips of the rocks, like the tops of hills far away. The ho- 
rizon is bathed in rosy hues, and we are prepared to see 
the sun rise, when all at once the guide appears, swinging 
his cluster of lamps, and asking us how we like the per- 
formance. Loudly encored, he repeats the transforma- 
tions again and again, — starlight, moonlight, thunder- 
clouds, midnight and day-dawn, the latter heralded by 
cock-crowing, the barking of dogs, lowing of cattle, and 
various other farm-yard sounds ; until, weary of an enter- 
tainment that long ago lost its novelty for him, he bids us 
resume our line of march. 

It is doubtful if one visitor in fifty goes farther into the 
!Main Cave than to the Star Chamber ; but none fail to see 
this favorite hall of illusions. The path to it is dry and so 
well-trodden as to be quite dusty. 

A pleasing incident comes to mind, showing how easily 
it may be reached, although a mile under ground. One 
evening, after tea, I had entered thus far alone, without a 
guide, and after studying for a while the peculiar effects 
of light and shade, I sat down on the log bench and put 
my lamps out, in order to enjoy the luxury of darkness, 
silence, and solitude. But ere long voices were heard, and 
mysterious peals of laughter. Soon the day-dawn efi'ect 
was unexpectedly produced, by the approach of a party 
of jocund youths and maidens, with lights, who, having 
dressed for a hop, first paid a visit to this enchanted 



32 Celebrated American Carenis. 

ground ; and, as cave dust never "(lies nor sticks, they did 
so without a sjteek on polislied boot or trailing robe. 

It may ])e well to say liere that the remainder of the 
Main Cave is one of the *' Special Routes," and tliosc who 
wish to visit it should make their arrangements for doing 
so at the start. 

As we pass along under a mottled ceiling that changes, 
from the constellation just described, to a mackerel sky 
with fleecy masses of floatingclouds, many curious objects 
are pointed out to us. Here is a stout oak pole, project- 
ing from a crevice, now inaccessible — put there when, and 
by whom, and for what purpose? There are snow-drifts 
of native Epsom salts, whitening the dusky ledges. Spaces 
are shown, completely covered by broad slabs, under- 
neath which are the ashes and embers of ancient fires. 
Side-cuts occasionally tempt us from the beaten path, into 
which we return V)y a circuitous way. These are gen- 
erally short, though some of them are several hundred 
yards long. 

Proctor's Arcade, the next considerable enlargement be- 
yond the Star Chamber, is said to be 100 feet in width, 45 
in height, and three-quarters of a mile in length. Its pro- 
portion, are very symmetrical throughout, and when illu- 
minated by blue lights, burning at several points, deserves 
the encomium pronounced on it by Dr. Wright, of being 
"the most magnificent natural tunnel in the world." 

Kinney's Arena is a hall about 100 feet in diameter, and 
50 feet in height. Here another stick in the ceiling is 
])ointed out, concerning Avhich there has been much spec- 
ulation. 

After passing the S Bend, which has no special points 
of interest, wc enter a spacious chamber, thus described 
by Prof. C. A. Wright, in whose honor it is named : 

" Wright's Rotunda is 400 feet in its shortest diameter. 
The ceiling is from 10 to 45 feet in lieight, and is perfectly 
level, the apparent difference in height being produced by 
the irregularity of the floor. It is astonishing that the 
ceiling has strength to sustain itself." " When this im- 
mense area is illuminated at the two extremes, simultanc- 



Mammoth Cave. 33 

ously, it presents a most magnificent appearance." Nich- 
olas' Monument, named for one of tlie guides, stands at 
one end of this large hall, a column four feet in diameter 
and extending from the floor to the ceiling. 

In this part of the cave the path, which I have said was 
very free from incumbrances, grows extremely rough, and 
the floor is but a bed of angular blocks, over which we 
make slow progress. "We are willing to take the guide's 
word for it that Fox Avenue is worth exploring, and that 
various other spots are curious or beautiful. 

"We clamber over the big rocks, however, to survey a 
mass of ruins known by the ominous name of the Black 
Chambers. The walls and ceilings are here completely 
coated with black gypsum. We find that the funereal 
darkness defies magnesium, and refuses to be cheered even 
by red fire. 

Crossing to the right hand side from these baronial 
ruins, we ascend through the Big Chimney's to an upper 
level, and, as we proceed, we hear the sound of a water- 
fall, which increases as we draw near, until we find our- 
selves at the Cataracts. 

I have nev^er happened to see this spot except in a dry 
season, and then, although there is quite a cascade, there 
is nothing to correspend with the frightful torrents that 
are said to pour down after heavy rains, " with a roar that 
resounds afar, and seems to be shaking the cave itself from 
its foundations." The water, be it more or less, falls from 
large perforations over-head, and is instantly lost to sight 
in a deep, funnel-shaped pit. 

No creeping nor crawling has to be done in the Main 
Cave, the average width, throughout its entire extent being 
about 60 feet, and its height about 40 feet; the length is 
estimated at nearly four miles, of which we have, thus far, 
traversed less than half. 

For the sake of variety, let us digress to visit the Soli- 
tary Chambers ; to reach which we have to pass for per- 
haps 20 feet under a low arch. Pursuing our way across 
these lonely apartments, we finally, by dint of much crawl- 
ing, arrive at the Fairy Grotto, once famous for its ten 



34 Celebrated American Caverns. 

thousand stalactites, as varied in form as the shapes visible 
in the kaleidoscope. Ruthless luinds have marred this 
l)cantiful place, demolishing its exquisite creations, until it 
is difficult to realize the truth of the earlier descriptions. 

Entering the Main Cave again, near the Cataracts, we 
continue our walk, clambering over great masses of frag- 
ments, taking care not to break our necks, until we find 
ourselves beyond this rocky pass, and under the stupend- 
ous vault known as the Chief City. Amid its wonders 
we linger long. Bayard Taylor's estimate of this colossal 
room shows the vigor of his imagination: "Length, 800 
feet; breadth, 300 feet; heighth, 125 feet; area, between 
4 and 5 acres!" Another, whose imagination was still 
more lively, estimates the area, at 11 acres ! There prob- 
ably are about two acres ; but the reader who has never ex- 
plored this underground realm, wdll find it tax his mind 
to realize how large even such an area would seem, clothed 
with eternal night, built in by walls of massive rock, and 
over-arched by so vas€ a dome as to make us hold our 
breath, lest if silence were broken it would fall. 

" Why doesn't it fall? " I heard a timid visitor ask the 
guide. 

" I know of no reason why it should not fall at this very 
moment," said he, solemnly, " and I never come under- 
neath without some degree of fear. Yet the arch appears 
to be a solid, seamless block of limestone, and it may stand 
for a thousand years." 

Immense rocks are thrown about in the wildest confu- 
sion, and it is evident that mighty forces were once here 
at play. But all is quiet now, and the dust of ages lies on 
those huge blocks. The guide picks out from interstices 
between the stones, half-burnt bits of cane, which he as- 
sures us the red men used to fill with bear's fat and burn, 
in lieu of torches, to light them in their solemn councils, 
or during their search for hidden treasures of flint or 
alabaster. The fact that no weapons have ever been found 
here shows that the councils held were of a peaceful 
nature ; and the absence of human remains proves that 
they were not here on a funereal errand. But certain it is 



Mammoth Cave. 35 

tTiat Indian cliiefs saw this city centuries before we saw 
the light of day. It should bo added, concerning the cane 
torches, that although now comparatively few, they were 
formerly so numerous as to furnish materials for hundreds 
of bon-firesby which the guides were accustomed to illumi- 
nate the mountain and the dome. Dr. Bird speaks (in 1837) 
of the supply as inexhaustible, filling the rocky crevices in 
" astonishing, unaccountable quantities." 

The stern features of the scene are best surveyed from 
the summit of a rugged ascent, called quite appropriately, 
a mountain. Here we sit, while, again and again, the 
guide lights red fire and burns Roman candles, and dis- 
charges rockets that find ample room to explode before 
they strike the far-distant walls. The probability is that 
electric lamps will be placed, at an early day, in these dim 
regions, and then every nook and secret recess will be 
brought into view ; but it is doubtful if the picturesque 
effects could be heightened beyond those now caused by 
the pyrotechnic glare that, as it flashes and dies away, over 
the long slope of irregular rocks, and athwart the gigantic 
vault, brings to view such glories as no torch-bearing 
mound-builder ever saw or dreamed of seeing. 

The majestic dome appears to follow us, as we retire 
from it, overarching us at every step ; as is the case with 
the sky, that bends the same canopy of blue above every 
meadow and valley, as the traveler moves from place to 
place. This phenomenon, first noticed by Mr. E. F. Lee, 
affords an impressive proof of its symmetrical proportions 
and vast dimensions. 

And while the crimson light stains the arches and pinna- 
cles, we take leave, with many a backward look, of this 
prehistoric council-chamber of sagamores and dusky 
braves. 

Resolute pedestrians may cross the Chief City, and ex- 
plore St. Catherine's City — which presents few novelties — 
and then go on under overhanging cliffs, to a place where, 
beneath a ceiling about fifteen feet high, the cave spreads 
out to a considerable wi)dth, and curious botryoidal forma- 
tions grow. This branch ends in Symmes' Pit, a well 



3G 



Cdchratcd American Caccrns. 



thirty feet deep. The Bhio Spring Branch is a long pas- 
sage, with very rough going, that leads on to a phice 
where the rocks till the cave from floor to roof, hopelessly 
obstructing further progress. And this is the end of the 
Main Cave. 




Saltpeteu Vaxs. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Short Route — Gothic Gallery — Gothic Arcade — Mummies — An- 
cient Relics — Short Cave — Salt Cave — Haunted Chamber — Register 
Ilall — Gothic Chapel — Aged Pillars — Romantic Marriage — Old Arm 
Chair — Main Cave Again — Deserted Chambers — Wooden-Bowl Room 
— New Discovery — Arched Way — Pits and Domes — The Labyrinth — 
Side-Saddle Pit — Gorin's Dome — Putnam's Cabinet — llovey's Cabinet 
— Bottomless Pit — Pensico Avenue — Scylla and Charybdis. 

The Short Route may be taken either by day or by 
night, as suits the convenience of the visitors; but those 
coming for a brief stay prefer the latter, as it leaves the 
entire ensuing day for the longer journey. The time re- 
quired is four hours; hence those who enter at 7 p. m. may 
expect to come out again by 11 p. m., and with no more 
fatigue than will insure a sound night's rest in a hotel 
where a mosquito never has been seen, and where locks 
and bolts arc only ornamental. 

Passing without further mention points already de- 
scribed in the preceding chapter, we pause first at the 
Gothic Gallery. Here in the foreground are the old vats 
and pump-frames ; and a stairway beyond them leada to 
the gate of a long avenue we are shortly to explore. From 
this ample gateway a narrow gallery, or rocky ehclf, 
sweeps entirely across the Main Cave — really forming a 
bridge, whereby one might pass to the other side. Should 
he do so, he would find indications that this was once a 
continuance of the avenue, and both representing the 
highest level known in the cave. Taken as a M^hole, tlio 
amphitheater is a noble one, and you are not surprised to 
be informed that here Edwin Booth once rendered selec- 
tions from the play of Hamlet, taking yonder rocky plat- 



38 Celebrated American Caverns. 

form on the right as his temporary stage. Fire-works are 
generally exhibited here, and to great advantage. 

Ascending the steps we enter the Gothic Arcade, and 
after proceeding ahout forty yards, our attention is di- 
rected to a niche in the left hand wall, which we are told 
is the Seat of the Mummy. The legend is that here were 
once found the dried bodies of a woman and- a child, un- 
like modern Indians, and probably belonging to some ex- 
tinct and ancient race. Such conflicting statements have 
been published concerning these remains, that many have 
classed the " Mammoth Cave Mummy" with the numerous 
hoaxes with which ingenious perversity has amused itself 
at the expense of a credulous public. The facts are these: 

In 1813 a scientific visitor, probably Mr. Merriam, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., saw what he mentions as " a relic of an- 
cient times, which requires a minute description." This 
description is substantially as follows: That some miners 
had exhumed a female body while digging saltpeter-earth 
in the Short Cave (not any portion of the Mammoth Cave, 
but a small cave in the neighborhood). The grave was 
covered by a flat rock, and contained the wardrobe, as well 
as the body of the woman. The latter was in a sitting 
posture, with the arms folded, and hands crossed and bound 
by a small cord. The inner wrapping was made of two 
deer-skins, closely shaved and ornamented with vines and 
leaves marked in white. Wext came a woven sheet, in 
texture like fabrics made by the South Sea Islanders. 
The hair on the mummy's head was red and clipped within 
an inch of the skin. The teeth were white and perfect; 
the nails long; the features regular; the color dark but 
not black ; the body free from blemish, except a wound 
between the ribs and an injury to one eye ; the frame that 
of a person about 5 feet 10 inches in height; the flesh 
hard and dry upon the bones ; and the weight, at the time 
of discovery, but 14 pounds, though it gained 4 pounds 
more by absorbing dam})ness. A knapsack, a reticule, and 
a pair of moccasins, all of woven or knit fiber, lay by the 
mummy's side. The articles contained in the reticule and 
kiuipsack were head-dresses of feathers; a cap of woven 



Mammoth Cave. 39 

bark ; several hundred strings of beads tied up in bunches; 
a necklace of red hoofs of fawns; an eagle's claw and the 
jaw of a bear; folded skins of rattlesnakes; vegetable 
colors done up in leaves; bunches of sinews, thread, and 
twine; seven needles (or awls) ; a deer-skin hand piece, to 
protect the hand in sewing; and two whistles of cane, 
bound together by a cord. After explaining that the cause 
of such perfect preservation was not due to any embalm- 
ing process, but merely to the antiseptic properties of the 
nitrous earth, combined with the extreme dryness of the 
cave, this writer concludes his fanciful description, by say- 
ing, " The features of this ancient member of the human 
family much resembled those of a tall, handsome Ameri- 
can woman. The forehead was high, and the head well 
formed." 

This same mummy was found by Dr. Nahum Ward, of 
Marietta, O., in 1815, in the Gothic Avenue (according to 
Mr. Proctor, a former proprietor of the hotel), and sent 
by him to the Antiquarian Society of "Worcester, Mass., 
where it now is. The gentleman to whom the credit of 
finding is really due, was Mr. Charles Wilkins, of Lexing- 
ton, Ky., one of the owners of Mammoth Cave. In a let- 
ter dated October 2, 1817, in reply to the inquiries of the 
secretary of the Antiquarian Society, Mr. Wilkins first 
describes the mummy of an infant about one year old, 
found in a cave about four miles from Mammoth Cave, 
and which, with its clothing, had 'been thrown into the 
furnace by the workmen. He regretted this so much as 
to oficr a reward for the next that might be found. The 
result was the discovery, a month later, of the one that 
was afterwards sent to Worcester. His agent (Mr. Miller) 
sent for it and placed it, for safe-keeping, in the Mam- 
moth Cave, and quite possibly he laid it in the niche of 
the Gothic Avenue that is now pointed out; but this 
is doubted by some. Wilkins, in a matter of fact style 
quite in contrast with the flowing sentences of Merriam, 
tells the same story, confirming the account of the uten- 
sils, ornaments, and articles of dress. 

Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D., of New York, also wrote to 



40 Celebrated American Caverns. 

the Secretary, giving an account of other mummies from 
the caverns of Kentucky and Tennessee. His letter is 
dated, August 24, 1815, and is preserved in the published 
Transactions of the Antiquarian Society. He states that 
"In exploring a saltpeter cave near Glasgow, several hu- 
man bodies were found enwrapped carefully in skins and 
cloths." He particularly describes one that had " a deep 
and extensive fracture of the skull, near the occiput, which 
probably killed him." 

In the Medical Repository (vol. xviii, p. 187), is pub- 
lished, a letter from Mr. Gratz, one of the owners, accom- 
panying a parcel of curiosities sent to Dr. Mitchell, from 
which we may fairly conclude that, besides interlopers 
from Short Cave and elsewhere, there were genuine Mam- 
moth Cave mummies. Mr. Gratz says : 

" There will be found in* this bundle two moccasons, in 
the same state they were when dug out of the Mammoth 
Cave, about 200 yards from its mouth. Upon examination, 
it will be perceived that they are fabricated out of dif- 
ferent materials ; one is supposed to be a species of flag, or 
lily which grows in the southern parts of Kentucky ; the 
other of the bark of some tree, probably the pawpaw. 
There are also, in this packet, a part of what is supposed 
to be a kinniconeke pouch, two meshes of a fishing net, 
and a piece of what we suppose to be the raw material, 
and of which the fishing net, the pouch and one of the 
moccasons are made. All of which were dug out of the 
Mammoth Cave, nine or ten feet under the ground; that 
is, below the surface or floor of the Cavern." Mr. Gratz 
also describes " an Indian bowl, or cup containing about 
a pint, cut out of wood, found also in the Cave;" and adds 
" lately there has been dug out of it the skeleton of a hu- 
man body, enveloped in a matting similar to that of the 
pouch." 

During the progress of the recent State geological sur- 
vey. Prof. F. W. Putnam, through his connection with it, 
was able to examine the archaeology of the various rock 
shelters and caverns of Kentucky ; and his report was pub- 
lished in 1875, in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 



Mammoth Cave. 41 

Natural History. lie collated all known facts concerning 
the relics here mentioned ; examined the celebrated mum- 
my in the museum at "Worcester, finding ample proof of 
the general correctness of the earlier accounts ; and also 
exhibited exceedingly curious fabrics from Salt Cave, a 
small cave near Mammoth Cave, and belonging to the 
same proprietors. 

Indian fire-places, with ashes and embers remaining; 
imprints of feet shod with braided moccasons or sandles, 
as distinct as if made but a few days previous; numerous 
cast-off sandles, artistically braided from the leaves of the 
cat-tail flag; woven cloth, dyed with black stripes, and in 
one corner showing that it had been mended by darning ; 
bunches of bark, and pieces of bark-twine and rope ; 
fringes and tassels of fibers ; wood cut by a stone ax ; a 
few arrow-heads, and various fragments — these were 
among the curiosities found by Prof. Putnam in the Salt 
Cave, It is to be hoped that this enthusiastic lover of sci- 
ence may find his example of thorough research imitated 
by those who do not have to travel a thousand miles to do 
their cave hunting ! 

On the old maps of the cave the Gothic Avenue is put 
down as the Haunted Chamber, on account of an adven- 
ture that befell one of the saltpeter miners. The story runs 
that a raw hand disdained the guidance of an older work- 
man, and trudged oft' alone to dig his lot of " peter-dirt," 
and was forgotten by the other miners until dinner time. 
Then a few negroes, half-naked, as was their custom when 
working, started to hunt him up. The poor fellow had 
filled his salt-sacks and started back, but finding the way 
longer than it had seemed when going in, concluded that 
he was lost. In his fright he became thoroughly bewil- 
dered, and, to make matters worse, fell over a stone and 
put his lamp out. His sins came in remembrance, and he 
gave himself up to alternate frenzy and prayer. " It was 
at this moment," says Dr. Bird, who tells the story, " that 
the miners in search of him made their appearance ; they 
lighted upon his sack, lying where he had thrown it, and 
set up a great shout, which was the first intimation he had 



42 Celebrated American Caverns. 

of their approach. He started up, and seeing them in the 
distance, the lialf-nakcd negroes in advance, all swinging 
their torclies aloft, he, not doubting they were the identi- 
cal devils whose appearance he had been expecting, took 
to his heels, yelling lustily for mercy. N^or did he stop, 
notwithstanding the calls of his amazed friends, until he 
had fallen a second time over the rocks, where he lay on 
his face, roaring for pity, and only by dint of much pulling 
and shaking was lie convinced that he was still in the 
world and in the Mammoth Cave ! " 

The Post Oak is a pillar about twelve feet high, bearing 
some resemblance to a trunk of a tree, and is formed by 
the meeting of a stalactite and stalagmite. It stands at 
the entrance of the Register Hall, on whose smooth ceil- 
ing hundreds of names have been inscribed in lampblack, 
before the rules of the cave had prohibited that cheap 
method of gaining immortality. As a substitute for this 
rocky album, convenient places are provided for visitors 
to leave their cards, which, in this extremely dry portion 
of the cave, Avill remain fresh and uninjured for many 
years. Thousands of cards, from all parts of the world 
have thus been left, and it aiFords amusement to look over 
them. Here are also many memorial heaps erected by ad- 
mirers of celebrated persons, each pile having a sign to 
show in whose honor it stands, and by whom it was 
erected. 

* On reaching w^liat are called the Pillars of Hercules, the 
guide collects the lamps and arranges them with fine 
effect among the arches of the Gothic Chapel, wiiich he 
then invites us to enter. The roof of this room seems to 
rest on groups of stalagmitic columns, once beautiful, no 
doubt, but now sullied by sacrilegious smoke. I counted 
eight, and found fragments of thirty more of them. Their 
growth was slow, requiring centuries to develop their pres- 
ent dimensions ; but I can hardly accept the conclui?ion of 
Dr. A. D. P>inkerd that 940,000 years were needed for 
their completion. It should be remembered that the rate 
of increment varies with changing conditions. Some of 
them are still dripping slowly, while others are perfectly 



"^' ^i:^^^'' 






O 

m 

OS 



Mammoth Cave. 43 

dry. Ilcnce any estimate as to their age in years is idle 
and fruitless. It is only certain that they are very old. 

Three pillars are so grouped as to form two Gothic 
arches, and before this unique altar once stood a runaway 
bride who had promised an anxious mother that she would 
*' never marry any man on the face of the earth." She 
kept the letter of her promise, but was married after all 
to the man of her choice, in this novel Gretna Green. 
Several romantic marriages have since been celebrated 
here. 

This entire avenue is more than a mile long, and 
abounds in grotesque curiosities. The Old Arm Chair is 
a stalagmite resembling the object for which it is named; 
and one of a lively fancy might say the same of the Ele- 
phant's Head. Other objects pointed out are Vulcan's 
Shop, the Lover's Leap, Gatewood's Dining Table, Lake 
Purity, and !N'apoleon's Dome — grand in its symmetry and 
size. The avenue ends in a double dome and a small cas- 
cade. 

Retracing our steps to the Main Cave, and proceeding 
as far as the Giant's Coffin, wo leave it again, by a crevice 
behind that huge sarcophagus, and presently find our- 
selves in the Deserted Chambers, in one of which was found 
the wooden bowl mentioned by Mr. Gratz. The opening 
on the left is called Black Snake Avenue, on account of 
its serpentine windings — not for its reptiles ! There has 
never been found a snake or any other hurtful creature in 
all this cavern. The avenue named tunnels under the 
Main Cave, with which it communicates near the stone 
cottages; thence it goes oa for along distance, and opens 
into the New Discovery made in September, 1879, by 
Messrs. J. and T. Lee, in pursuance of a suggestion made 
by "William, the guide. It may be added that Mr. Florian 
Giauque, of Cincinnati, claims priority in this discovery. 
Welcome Avenue, as it is fitly named, comes out, finally, 
in Serpent Hall, beyond Echo river. It contains some in- 
teresting rooms, but its value consists in furnishing what 
has long been desired — a way of exit from the remoter 



44 Celebrated Avierican Caverns. 

portions of the cave, in case of a sudden rise in the subter- 
ranean streams. It is not open to the public. 

There is also another Avay out from the Wooden Bowl 
Iloom, by a stairway on tlie right, bearing the whimsical 
name of the Steeps of Time. Down this we go to a lower 
level, and proceed along the Arched Way, leading to a 
wonderful region of pits and domes. Early writers men- 
tion the finding of moccason tracks near a basin here 
called liichardson's Spring, where every l)ody stops for a 
taste of the clear water flowing down from the rocks. 
Plodding quietly along for 150 yards, the guide suddenly 
cries, "Danger on the right!" Beside our path yawns a 
chasm called the Side-saddle Pit, from the shape of a pro- 
jecting rock, on which we seat ourselves, and watch with 
fearful interest the rolls of oiled paper lighted by the 
guide and dropped into the abyss. Down they go in a 
fiery spiral, burning long enough to give us a view of its 
corrugated sides and of a mass of blackened sticks and 
timbers sixty-five feet below, the distance being thus 
measured by a line and plummet. The opening is twenty- 
five feet across, and above it, or nearly so, is Minerva's 
Dome, thirty-five feet high. 

Descending a stairway, 50 yards beyond, we enter the 
Labyrinth,* a narrow, winding passage, barely wide enough 
for two persons to go abreast; and after climbing a second 
stairway and going down a third, and turning about till 
we are almost bewildered, we find ourselves peering 
through a window-like aperture into profound darkness. 
The gloom is intensified by the monotonous sound of drip- 
ping water that seems to fall from a vast height to a dis- 

*The original Labyrinth was near Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe), not far 
from the Lake Moeris, in Egypt. Herodotus describes it as " consist- 
ing of 1,500 cluunbers excavated nnder ground, and as many above the 
surface, the whole inclosed by a wall." lie explored a number of the 
mazes. No traces of it now exist. Perhaps iilled up with sand. A. 
second labyrinth was made in Tuscany, a third in Lemnos, and a 

fourth in Crete. 

" As the Crctun labyrinth of old 
With wandering ways, and many a winding fold, 
Involved the weary fcot without redress, 
la a round error which denied recess. "—( F»r(7i7's ^neid.) 




The Labyrinth in Mammoth Cave. 



1. Wooden Bowl Room. 

2. Side Paddle Pit. 

3. Goriii's Dome. 

4. Putnam's Cabinet. 
"i. Hovey's Cabinet. 
I'l. Ariadne's Grotto. 



7. Bottomless Pit. 

8. Covered Pit. 

9. Scylla. 

10. Charybdis. 

11. Uevellers' Hall. 



Mammoth Cave. 45 

mal depth. The guide bids us stay where we are, while he 
goes to a smaller window still further on, through which 
he thrusts blue lights and blazing rolls, disclosing inde- 
scribable wonders to our gaze. Igniting magnesium (of 
which it is well to have a supply, as it is not furnished by 
the guides), w^e discern the floor far below us, about an 
acre in area, its general level about 90 feet lower than tlie 
window. A small pit in it leads to a body of water 12 
feet deep, making the total distance to the lowest point 
117 feet. The height of the vault over-head seems to be 
about 100 feet ; which gives 217 feet as the extreme alti- 
tude of this mighty chasm known as Gorin's Dome. It 
used to be called 500 feet high ; but as the distance from the 
surface to drainage level is now known to be only 328 feet, 
that fact effectually disposes of such exaggerated estipiates. 
The perpendicular walls are draped with three immense 
stalagmitic curtains, one above another, whose folds, 
which seem to be loosely floating, are bordered with fringes 
rich and heavy. These hangings, dight with figures rare 
and fantastic, fit for Plutonian halls, were woven in Na- 
ture's loom by crystal threads of running water ! 

Putnam's Cabinet, and Hovey's Cabinet, still further on 
in the Labyrinth, are smaller domes, where concretions 
known as cave-pearls, are found, and also some of the 
finest alabaster in the cave. Here, too, are specimens of 
oolitic limestone, which under the microscope has the ap- 
pearance of being made up of tiny eggs. The passage 
terminates in Ariadne's Grotto. 

On retracing our vay out of the Labyrinth, we next 
come to the famous abyss known as the Bottomless Pit, 
above which expands Shelby's Dome. This frightful pit 
was long regarded as constituting an impassable barrier to 
further progress ; but its terrors have been greatly over- 
drawn. The author of " Warwick, or the Lost National- 
ities of America," makes his hero descend many miles into 
the Bottomless Pit, by the aid of Stephen the guide ! The 
depth of the chasm has ordinarily been given as more than 
200 feet. It is really a double pit, being nearly divided 
by a tongue of rock that juts into it for 27 feet ; from the 



4(3 Celebrated American Caverns. 

point of wliich, in 1837, Stephen threw a ladder across, 
and ventured into the unknown regions beyond. A sub- 
stantial bridge now spans the gulf, which, for safety is re- 
newed every four years. Leaning over the hand-rails, we 
safely admire the gleaming rolls as they whirl, to and fro, 
slowly sinking till they vanish, lighting up, in their capri- 
cious progress, the wrinkles and furrows made by the tor- 
rent's flow during untold ages. Bringing the mysterious 
abyss to the severe test of line and plummet, we find its 
depth to be, on one side only 95 feet, and on the other 105 
feet. Shelby's Dome overhead may be 60 feet high, and 
the space between 15 feet, thus making 180 feet the great- 
est distance from top to bottom of the entire chasm. 

Reveler's Hall, the first room beyond the Bottomless 
Pit, is. about 40 feet in diameter and 20 feet high, and was 
formerly a place where parties stopped to dine. The path 
to our left leads to the Rivers, which are reserved for 
another time. That on the right is Pensico Avenue, about 
a mile long, and containing various objects of interest. 
The Sea Turtle is the first of these to which our attention 
is called ; a rock fallen from the roof and shaped like the 
carapace of a huge tortoise, 30 feet in diameter. Wild 
Hall is next entered, where tlic great rocks are strewn 
about in the most amazing disorder, under a roof of elab- 
orate lancet arches. A low passage on the left, called 
Bunyan's Way, communicates with River Hall, but is sel- 
dom traversed, as visitors take the more direct path men- 
tioned above. Proceeding still through Pensico Avenue, 
we admire the snowy nodules incrusting the Snowball 
Arch, beneath which we go on to the Grand Crossings, 
where four avenues meet. This place is much admired. 
The same is true of Mat's Arcade, 50 yards long, 30 feet 
wide and GO high, where ]Mat himself pointed out to us 
the series of cavern floors that had successively given way 
leaving four narrow terraces along the entire length of the 
walls. A large white column is called, for some unknown 
reason, the Pine-Apple Bush. A little beyond this forma- 
tion is the Hanging Grove, where the stalactites resemble 



Mdmmoth Cave. 47 

branches of coral rather than those of trees. About a 
hundred yards on and we arrive at Angelica's Grrotto, 
sparkling with crystals. 

This is the end of the Sho»rt lloute ; and here this chap- 
ter might also end, were it not that I wish to describe 
certain remarka^jle pits discovered, in February 1881, by 
Mr. J. T. Hill and William Garvin the guide. These are 
not ordinarily exhibited, on account of their dangerous 
surroundings; and, indeed, I was assured that I was the 
first visitor who had been permitted to explore the locality, 
though it had been seen by several persons connected with 
the Cave. 

The approach is by a low, creeping passage, opening 
from the Arched AVay, and leading across what has for 
many years been known only to be shunned — the Covered 
Pit. This treacherous chasm is imperfectly concealed by 
loose slabs of limestone, between which the black depths 
seem to be lying in wait for the heedless explorer. Cau- 
tiously crossing it, and crawling on our hands and knees 
for some distance further, we stopped, and William told 
me to listen to the slow dripping of a waterfall. Throw- 
ing a pebble in the direction of the sound, I could hear it 
bound from side to side as it descended, until, after a long 
interval, it fell into a body of water below. On examina- 
tion we found that we lay on a rocky partition between 
the old Covered Pit on the right, and a new one on the left. 
The latter proved to be a pit within a pit, as we found on 
throwing lighted paper down its mouth. The upper one 
is about 90 feet deep, and at its bottom we could just dis- 
cern the orifice of the lower one. 

I was anxious to find a point from which to examine 
this inner pit to better advantage. Creeping back from 
oft' the partition, we made our way around a rocky pillar 
for perhaps 40 yards, and came upon the further edge of 
the pit that had excited our curiosity, and also found an- 
other horrible pit on the left, separated from the first by a 
ridge only six feet wide ! The proximity of the two 
chasms suggested to Mr. Klett the names of Scylla for the 



48 Celebrated American Caverns. 

first, and Charybdis for the second ; in memory of the 
ehissic line : 

" Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim." 
(You may fall into Scylla, trying to shun Charybdis.) 

Willing to rim some risk to accomplish my object, I 
clambered a short distance down into ^ylla, to a ledge 
overhanging its very deepest portion, and cleft by a ser- 
pentine crevice about five inches wide. Dropping pebbles 
through this crack, we timed them as they fell unob- 
structed, and by repeated trials found the time taken in 
reaching the bottom to be exactly five seconds by the 
watch. This, by a well-known formula for calculating ac- 
celerated motion, would give 402 feet as the depth in vacuo. 
Making due allowance for the resistance of the atmosphere, 
and for the time necessary for the sound to return, the 
space passed \vus not less than 200, nor more than 250 fecto 
"William, not satisfied with scientific guess-work, produced 
his ball of cord, fastened a lamp to its end, and let it down 
into the darkness. The glimmering light served to show 
the irregular walls of the abyss, as it descended, until at 
length it caught on a projecting rock. In his eftbrts to 
shake it loose, the cord was burned ofl*; but the lamp re- 
mained where it had lodged, shining on as if determined 
to do its dut^^ to the last ! The part of the cord that was 
drawn up measured 135 feet, leaving us, after all, to con- 
jecture the remaining depth. Probably the pit perforates 
the limestone down to the drainage level^a distance ac- 
cording to the barometer, of 220 feet. 

Glad to forsake the thin crust on which we stood, over- 
hanging such prodigious depths, we climcd out of the jaws 
of Scylla, and made experiments on Charybdis. Here, 
again, the pebbles were five seconds in reaching the pool 
below. Along the perilous rim William led the way to still 
another chasm, which we identified as the farther edge of 
the Bottomless Pit. Kegaining, not without some diffi- 
culty, the bridge over it, we proceeded a short distance on 
the path that leads to River Hall, and then turned back, 
by a passage under the rocks, to an opening into the side 
of the Bottomless Pit, about 40 feet below the bridge. 



Mammoth Cave. 



49 



Here we saw the famous pit in a new light, and also ob- 
tained the best view to be had of Shelby's Dome. The ac- 
companying picture of the Bottomless Pit was taken from 
this point of view. While we were standing there, on the 
occasion referred to, I noticed a volume of smoke issuing 
from a window be- 
yond us. Investi- 
gating this phe- 
nomenon, we found 
ourselves looking 
again into Charyb- 
dis, though not at 
its deepest part. 
The smoke came 
from the blue lights 
we had ignited just 
before leaving it. 

Thus, as we have 
shown, there are, 
within an area 
whose diameter 
does not perhaps 
exceed 600 yards, 
six of the largest 
naturally formed 
pits in the known 
world, besides sev- 
eral othcrsof small- 
er dimensions; and 
the entire group is 
joined together by 
connecting pass- 
ages. An inspec- 
tion of the accom- 
panying diagram i ">■ Bottomi,kss Tit. 
(opposite page 45) will enable the reader to get an idea 
of this extraordinary locality. 

On inquiring of ^Ir. Klctt if there was any sink-hole 
in the vicinity to correspond with this cluster of chasms, 




50 



Celebrated American Caverns. 



lie directed mc to n \nQco of unbroken forest, less than 
half a mile from the Mammoth Cave Hotel, where all the 
requirements of the case seem to be met. This vast de- 
pression embraces many acres, and is so deep that, when 
standing on its edge, one can overlook the tops of the 
trees growing in the central portion. It remains to be 
proved by further explorations whether there are any 
hidden tunnels of communication between it and the re- 
markable group of domes and pits I have been trying to 
describe. 




A Snow Cloud. (Seepage 59.) 



CHAPTER Y. 

The Long Route — Main Cave once more — Beyond the Pits — Fat Man's 
Misery — Bacon Chamber — Spark's Avenue — Mammoth Dome — 
Egyptian Temple — A Lamp Lost and Found — River Hall — Dead 
8ea — A Jolly Crowd Crossing the Styx — Lake Lethe — Echo River — 
Eyeless Fish — Subterranean Music — Silliman's Avenue — El Ghor — 
A Purple Vintage — Dinner in the Shade — A Crystal Paradise — 
Cleveland's Cabinet — Cave Flowers — Rocky Mountains — Croghan's 
Hall — The Maelstrom — A Daring Exploit — The Corkscrew — Old 
Matt in Danger — Out of the Cave and under the Stars. 

Mammotu Cave has gained a reputation as a cave of 
" magnificent distances ; " and many a critical visitor lias 
set himself to correct the over-estimates of others. Yet 
the fact remains that the Long Route is a daj^'s journey 
under ground. The signal for starting is given at 9 
A. M., and the return is ahout 6 P. M., after nine hours of 
steady walking over a road, a little rough in spots, but 
for the most part quite smooth and easy. I was one of " a 
rapid transit party," one day, that tried to see how quickly 
the trip could be made. iTone but fast walkers were in- 
cluded, and no stops were made, except at points of special 
interest; and the time consumed was just seven hours. 
Allowing, therefore, two miles an hour as the rate of travel, 
it follows that the Long Route is not less than 14 miles, 
nor more than 18; and this estimate may as well be ac- 
cepted until the distance is exactly measured. Long as 
the trip is few persons find it fatiguing, being sustained 
by the variety and novelty of the scenery, and also by the 
cool and pure air for which the cave is celebrated. 

Down the valley again, aiul under the thick horizontal 
plates of limestone, from whose green and mossy ledge the 
wild pattering rill falls on the rocks below ; on through the 



52 Celebrated American Caverns. 

Narrows, und llie llotunda, where perhaps a generation 
of dead men sleep; clinil)iiig the p'des left by the niter- 
dii2:i>:ers of old, or led by the iimsieal ringing of the gnide's 
footsteps on the hard rocky floor; between heavy but- 
tresses bending beneath the gray ceiling above, or walls 
hollowed into low-browed niches and nobler arches — thus 
we go through the wide and lofty Main Cave until the 
Giant's Coflin is reached. This rock was originally chris- 
ened the " Steamboat," and the early accounts explained 
the points of resemblance, and had poetical things to say 
about her "reposing in her river of stone." Creeping 
around her bows, we next descend into those dens of dark- 
ness, the Deserted Chambers, and soon hear the faithful 
guide call out '' danger on the right ! " Safely by the ter- 
rible pits, we pause to take breath, meanwhile blowing 
our lights out in order to prove by the "horror of a great 
darkness" what a blessed thing light is. Happy are we 
in the knowledge that the lamps are still near, and our 
pockets full of matches ! A brief imprisonment in an at- 
mosphere that seems to have been suddenly solidified to 
a mass of coal suflices, and we relight our lamps and 
march on. 

"March," however, is not just the right word; for 
progress now is by the Valley of Humility, a low passage 
four feet high, conducting us into the Scotchman's Trap, 
where a canny Scot paused lest the broad rock, suspended 
by the tip, might fall and bury those venturing through 
the circular orifice beneath. Less timid than he, we dive 
down the trap-door, and presently are made acquainted 
with the famous and original Fat Man's Misery, of which 
all others are but base imitations. Some fiistidious soul 
once tried to change this name to " the Winding Way,"' 
but the attempt was a failure. Here the path enters a 
serpentine channel, whose walls, 18 inches apart, change 
direction 8 times in 23G feet, while the average distance 
from the sandy floor to the ledge overhead is but 5 feet. 
The rocky sides are beautifully marked with waves and 
ripples, as if running water had been suddenly petrified. 
There seems to have been first a horizontal opening be- 



Mammoth Cave. 53 

tween two strata, by taking advantage of wliicli this 
singular channel was chiseled, from wliose too close em- 
brace we gladly emerge into Great Relief, where we can 
straighten our spines, and enjoy once more the luxury 
of taking a full breath. The question is sometimes asked, 
" Ilow fat a man is the fattest man that can get through 
the Fat Man's Misery?" Some reader may be comforted 
by learning that, in August, 1881, Mr. Abraham Mcuks, a 
colored man from Lebanon, Ky., whose weight was pre- 
viously 282| pounds, succeeded in the attempt. He did 
without help till he came to the place where the floor 
comes up and the roof comes down, to bother tall men 
as well as fat ones, and then AVilliam, who is equal to 
any emergency, helped him through. 

"How did you manage it?" said a listener to the story, 
as it was told at the hotel that evening. 

"Easy enough," gravely answered the guide. "I took 
him through in sections." Mcuks himself claimed to 
have lost 15 pounds in the operation, and the guides, 
to this day, point out places where the rocks had to bend 
to let this jolly fat man through ! 

It was formerly supposed that if this passage were 
blocked up, escape from the regions beyond would be im- 
possible. But another mode of exit was discovered by . 
William, in 1871, through the Cork-screw. This intricate 
web of iissures was known as long ago as 1837, but not as 
a passage through to River Hall. In the oldest published 
accounts of Mammoth Cave it is stated that " among the 
Kentucky Cliffs, just under the ceiling, is a gap in the 
wall, into which you can scramble, and make your way 
down a chaotic gulf, creeping like a rat under and among 
huge loose rocks, to a depth of 80 or 90 feet — pro- 
vided you do not break your neck before you get half 
way." Since William made his way through, the obstruc- 
tions have partly been removed, so that now, by mounting 
three stairways, crawling through narrow crevices, and 
leaping from rock to rock, one may ascend for what would 
perhaps be a vertical distance of 150 feet, and thus reduce 
the journey from the mouth of the cave to Great Relief by 



54 Celebrated American Caverns. 

nearly ii mile. Visitors who come in one way, generally 
go out the other, and regard the last route chosen the 
worst, whiehever it may have l)een. 

The guide calls attention, as we now proceed, to the 
Odd Fellow's Links, and other concretions on the ceiling, 
which are caused by the wearing away of the more soluble 
limestone from around hard ridges of ironstone, leaving 
these emblems in bass-relief. 

Bacon Chamber is a still more striking instance of mim- 
ickry, for the masses of rock projecting from the ceiling 
certainly look like the rows of hams in a packing-house, 
and it seems as if nature must have made this chamber 
when in some jocose mood. 

Spark's Avenue runs from the Bacon Chamber to the 
Mammoth Dome, the most spacious of the many domes in 
this cave. As this is a " special route," I took my guide 
early one morning, long before the regular hour for par- 
ties to enter for the Long Route, meaning to complete the 
trip in time to join a large company of tourists from Kash- 
ville, who were going beyond the rivers. My guide, on 
this occasion, was Tom Lee, and we were accompanied by 
Barton, the artist, whose pencil has furnished many of the 
cuts that embellish this volume. Leaving the latter to 
make a drawing of the Cork-screw, Tom and I entered 
Sparks' Avenue, which, as he told me, is named for Mr. 
C. A. Sparks, of IN'ew York. It begins well, by an ample 
room named Bandit's Hall, where there is a wild confu- 
sion of huge rocks. Brigg's Avenue, to the right of it, we 
did not explore, though it is said to be of great extent. I 
also took for granted the " petrified saw-logs " in Clarissa's 
Dome, at the end of Sylvan Avenue, 100 yards on our left, 
after leaving Newman's Spine — a crevice where we have 
the privilege of straightening our own spines, after no lit- 
tle stooping. We finally emerged from Sparks' Avenue, 
and found ourselves on a terrace thirty feet long and fif- 
teen feet wide, confronted by a realm of empty darkness. 
Our lamps revealed neither floor, nor roof, nor opposite 
wall. And this is Mammoth Dome, the grandest hall in 
all this domain of silence and of night. I directed Tom to 



Jfammoth Cave. 55 

leave me here, and to return for my comrade and for fire- 
works. 

Not until Tom's glittering light was gone, and his re- 
treating steps had ceased to echo along the corridor, did I 
realize the utter loneliness that surrounded me. I sat on 
the edge of the terrace for a time, and amused myself by 
throwing lighted papers down, thus discovering that the 
floor was less than forty feet below me, and Avas accessible 
only by a rude ladder blackened with age. Here and 
there a rung was missing, and I hesitated to trust myself 
to such a fragile support. Retreating into the avenue, I 
wliiled the time away by catching cave crickets, till Tom 
and Barton came with twenty lamps and a supply of red 
fire and bengolas. 

Carefully descending the treacherous ladder, which has 
since been replaced by a substantial stairway, we lighted 
up the huge dome, by burning magnesium at three points 
at once, and estimated its dimensions to be about 400 feet 
in length, 150 feet in width, and varying from 80 to 250 
feet in height. The floor slopes down to a pool that re- 
ceives a waterfall from the summit of the dome. The 
walls are curtained by alabaster drapery in vertical folds, 
varying in size from a pipe-stem to a saw-log, and deco- 
rated by heavy fringes at intervals of about twenty feet. 
A huge gateway at the farther end of the hall, opens into 
a room so like the ruins of Luxor and Karnak, that we 
named it the Egyptian Temple. The floor here is paved 
with stalagmitic blocks, stained by red and black oxides 
into a kind of mosaic. Six colossal columns, 80 feet 
from base to capital, and 25 feet in diameter, stand 
in a semi-circle, flanked by pyramidal towers. The ma- 
terial of the shafts is gray oolite, fluted by deep fur- 
rows, with sharp ridges between ; the whole column being 
veneered with yellow stalagmite, rich as jasper, and cov- 
ered by tracery as elaborate as Chinese carving. The cap- 
itals are projecting slabs of limestone, and the bases arc 
garnished by mushroom-shaped stalagmites. The largest 
of them is Caliban's Cushion. By an opening behind the 
third column in the row, we clambered down a steep de- 



5G 



Celebrated American Caverns. 



Rcent into gloomy catacombs bcncatli, which wo did not 
liiUy explore for lack of time. Tom pointed out to us, on 
our way back to the terrace, an opening overhead, and as- 
sured us that it was identical with the Crevice Pit in the 
branch of Audubon's Avenue, known as the Little Bat 

Koom. 

In old times the 

miners, in searching 
for the best beds of 
saltpeter-earth, had 
the notion that 
there must be a 
very rich deposit in 
the Crevice Pit, and 
one of them, in ex- 
amining it, dropped 
his lamp. Hechmb- 
ed down into the 
ugly black hole, and 
tried to get his 
lump again by feel- 
ing around with a 
stick. Suddenly 
the stick fell rat- 
tling down an abyss. 
A sprightly young negro volunteered to be let down at 
the end of a rope, as a sort of animated plummet, to sound 
the depth of the pit. The story he told, on being drawn 
up again, was so wonderful that nobody believed him, of 
a spacious and splendid room, far larger than the Rotunda. 
When Mr. Edmund F. Lee, a civil engineer of Cincinnati, 
made his survey of Mammoth Cave, in 1835, he tied a 
stone to a string and " struck bottom at 280 feet." As the 
real distance is less than 100 feet, the probability is that 
he paid out the rope after the stone rested ; or else that 
the stone rolled down toward the pool below, and was 
then drawn up and the Avholc length of cord taken as 
telling the depth. 

One of the guides named John Buford, while accompa- 




Tm; Egyptian Temple. 



Mammoth Cave. 57 

nying a certain visitor named Smith, in 1843, discovered 
tlic entrance tlirongli Sparks' Avenue, to the immense 
room that was named, in lionor of the explorer, " Smith's 
Mammoth Dome." On a subsequent visit, one of the 
ficuides — I tliink it was oUl Mat — found the miner's lamp 
lying on the floor where it had fallen thirty years before. 

It was time to return, if we were to carry out our origi- 
nal plan. On the wa}^ Tom called our attention to cer- 
tain signs on the walls, by means of which the guides 
could tell their way, if they were at any time in doubt. 
Each guide has his OAvn mark, and it is said that many a 
time, when one of the later ones has consTratulated him- 
self on a new discovery, he has been chagrined by finding 
Stephen's or Mat's sign on the wall, showing a previous 
visit. 

On entering River Hall, we followed a path skirting the- 
edge of cliflTs sixty feet high and one hundred feet long, 
embracing the sullen waters to which the name of Dead 
Sea is given. Descending a flight of steps, we came to a 
cascade, but a little further on, by some conjectured to be 
a reappearance of the waterfall at the entrance of the cave. 
It precipitates itself into a funnel-shaped hollow in a mas- 
sive mud-bank. On another visit, in 1881, we found a 
natural bed of mushrooms growing here, a species of 
Agaricus, that has suggested the idea of a mushroom 
farm, similar to those at Frepilon and Mery, in France, 
whence many thousands of bushels are sent to market an- 
nually. 

Our various speculations were broken in upon by the 
hilarious sounds heralding the party under Mat's escort, 
long before they came in view. There never was a pret- 
tier sight than this merry company, sixty in all, as with 
flashing lamps and spangled costumes they skirted the 
somber terrace, astonishing the gnomes by " Litoria," and 
other jolly college songs. They wound past us, in single 
file, disappearing behind a wall of stone to come into view 
again on the natural bridge, whence they swung their 
lamps to catch sight of the River Stix, on whose banks 
we now were standing. 



58 Cdchrated American Caverns. 

The estimated Icngtli of tlio Styx is 400 foot, and its 
Torcadtli about 40 feet. It was formerly crossed by boat, 
before the discovery of the natural bridge, whence Mat's 
party are hailing us with invitations to join their number 
and go on. 




Crossing the Styx. 

Lake Lethe comes next— a body of water about as large 
as the Styx, and, like it, once crossed only by boat. It is 
now lower than formerly, being slowly filled with mud, 
and a narrow path runs along its margin, at the foot of 
cliffs 90 feet high, leading to a pontoon at the neck of the 
lake. Crossing this, we step upon a beach of the finest 
yellow sand. This is the Great Walk, extending to Echo 
river, a distance of 500 yards, under a lofty ceiling mottled 



Mammoth Cave. 59 

with white and black limestones, like snow-clouds drifting 
in a wintry sky. A rise of only five feet would completely 
cover this sandy walk, and this is its condition for from 
four to eight months in every year. The streams are 
usually low in summer, when there are also the most vis- 
itors — a fortunate coincidence. 

The connection of the cave rivers with Green river has 
been demonstrated by the simple experiment of throwing 
chaff upon them, which comes to the surface in the upper 
and lower big springs; deep, bubbling pools, lying half a 
mile apart, under cliffs bristling with hemlock and pine. 
When these pools are submerged by a freshet in Green 
river, the streams in the cave are united into a continuous 
body of water. Tlie rise is augmented by the torrents 
emptied down through the sink-holes, and sometimes is so 
great as to touch the iron railing above the Dead Sea. 

The subsidence of so vast a body of water, although for 
some reason less rapid than of streams without, must be 
with powerful suction causing eddies and whirlpools. In 
order to save from destruction, at such times, the uncouth 
little fleet, built of planks and timbers, every piece of 
which was brought in through passes we had traversed 
with difficulty emptj'-handed, the boats are securely fast- 
ened, when not in use, by long ropes of twisted grape- 
vines that let them swim with the flood. 

The first persons that ever crossed the rivers were 
Stephen, the guide, with Mr. John Craig, of Philadelphia, 
and Mr. Brice Patton, a teacher in the Blind Asylum at 
Louisville. A number of blind men and women have, at 
different times, visited Mammoth Cave. Mat piloted four 
in one party in 1880. They took only the Short Route. 
They seemed much interested, and talked about what they 
had seen, and said that every thing was very fine ! 

Four boats now await us on the banks of Echo river. 
Each has seats on the gunwales for twenty passengers, 
while the guide stands in the bow and propels the prim- 
itive craft by a long paddle, or by grasping projecting 
rocks. There is hardly a perceptible current at any sea- 
son when the stream can be crossed at all ; hence the inac- 



CO Cdchrated American Caverns. 

curacy of pictures that represent the river as boisterous, 
and frantic oarsmen striving with niiglit and main to keep 
tlie boat from shipwreck. And as the only gale in the 
entire cavern is tliat which blows out of its mouth, there 
is equal impropriety in a striking picture I have seen of 
s^?7-boats on this unruffled tide ! 

The low arch, only three or four feet high, under which 
we go at embarkation, soon rises to a height varying from 
ten to thirty feet, while the plummet shows a still greater 
depth l)olow. The surface at low water is by the barome- 
ter but 20 feet above the level of Green river; and this 
nuiy, therefore be regarded as the lowest part of the cave, 
at least so far as it is accessible to visitors.* 

The width of Echo River varies from 20 to -200 feet, and 
its length is said to be about three quarters of a mile. 
Throughout its entire extent there are only one or two 
points where a landing could be made, and the stream can 
not properly be said to have any shore. Hence the guides 
exercise the strictest authority, in order to guard against 
accidents. 

Tom secures for our exclusive use a boat smaller than 
those into which the others crowd. He then draws from 
a hiding-place a hand-net, and tries to catch for us a few 
of the famous eyeless fish, that dart to and fro, but vanish 
on the least agitation of the waters. His success at this 
time was not very encouraging. But subsequently, on 
other trips, we captured numerous specimens, from two to 
six inches long, and usually destitute even of rudimentary 
organs of vision. Several, however, had protuberances or 
sightless eyes, and one had good eye-sight. The grada- 
tions of color are from olive-brown to pure white ; while 
some are perfectly transparent. They have simple carti- 
lage instead of bones, and are destitute of scales. They 
are known to be viviparous, the young being born in Oc- 
tober, and without external eyes when born. There are 
also blind and white crawfish, that are oviparous, as is 
proved by a fine specimen now m my cabinet, which still 

*One authority makes the river 240 feet holow the mouth of the 
cave, by barometric measurement. Others make it but 174 feet. 



Mammoth Cave'. 61 

carries its cluster of salmon-colored eggs. The Cambarus 
and Amblyopsis have a wide distribution ; being found in 
many other caves, and also in certain deep wells, both in 
Kentucky and in Indiana. These, as well as other true sub- 
terranean fauna, maybe regarded as chiefly of Pleistocene 
origin ; yet certain forms arc supposed to be remnants of 
Tertiary, and possibly of Cretaceous life. The stronglv 
marked divergence of cave-animals from those found out- 
side, convinced the elder Agassiz that they were especially 
created for the limits within which they dwell. But it is 
doubtful if there is more variability than can be accounted 
for by their migration, many generations ago, from the 
outer world to a realm of absolute silence and perpetual 
darkness. 

Along the water's edge are cavities, from a few inches 
to many feet in depth, washed out by tlie stream. These 
gave a wag along with the jolly Nashville party an oppor- 
tunity to break the silence that had settled over the voy- 
agers, and he shouted with absurd glee, pointing to the 
cavities : 

" Oh, see these<. little bits p' caves — three for five cents ! " 

The solemn echoes caught his silly tones, and bore them, 
as if in derision, hither and thither and far away. When 
the peals of laughter that followed had died away, a quiet 
lady in black velvet led the company in sacred song. The 
concord of sweet sounds was surprisingly agreeable. 

Allowing the I^ashville party to go on without us, we 
remained alone on Echo river, floating over its strangely 
transparent water, as if gliding through the air, and trying 
every echo its arches were capable of producing. A single 
aerial vibration given with energy, as by a pistol-shot, re- 
bounded from rock to rock. The din awakened by dis- 
cordant sounds was frightful. On the other hand when 
the voice gave the tones of a full chord serifli/m, they came 
back in a sweeping arpcgr/io. Flute-music produced charm- 
ing reverberations; and the cornet still finer eflfects. It 
should be explained that this symmetrical passage-way 
does not give back a distinct echo, as the term is commonly 
used, but a harmonious prolongation of sound for from 10 



62 Cdchratcd American Caverns. 

to 30 seconds after the original impulse. The long vault 
has a certain key-note of its own, which, when firmly 
struck, excites harmonics including tones of incredible 
depth and sweetness, reminding me of the profound un- 
dertone one hears in the music of Niagara Falls. 

An extraordinary result was obtained by the guide's 
agitating the water vigorously with his broad paddle, and 
then seating himself in silence by my side. The first sound 
that broke the stillness was like the tinkling of silver bells. 
Larger and heavier bells then seemed to take up the mel- 
ody, as the waves sought out the cavities in the rock. And 
then it appeared as if all chimes of all cathedrals had 
conspired to raise a tempest of sweet sounds. They then 
died away to utter silence. We still sat in expectation. 
Lo, as if from some deep recess that had been hitherto for- 
gotten, came a tone tender and profound; after which, 
like gentle memories, were re-awakened all the mellow 
sounds that had gone before, until River Hall rang again^ 
Those who try their own voices are pleased to have the 
hollow wall give back shout and song, whimsical cry and 
merry peal; but the nymphs reserve their choicest harmo- 
nies for those who are willing to listen in silence to the 
voice of many Avaters. 

A rocky inlet receives our craft, and as we land we are 
greeted by the melody of a cascade that breaks itself into 
pearls on the sloping ledges. An avenue extends from 
Cascade Hall to Roaring river — a succession of shallow 
ripples and deep basins, navigated by a canoe. The pas- 
sage-way through which it flows has an echo of remark- 
able power, but hoarse rather than musical. 

"We overtake Mat's party in Silliman's Avenue, where 
the irregular floor, rugged walls finished by a well marked 
cornice, and sides pierced by cavities, show that we are 
now in a portion of recent formation as compared with the 
Main Cave. Among points of interest in this long avenue, 
may be mentioned the Dripping Spring, around which are 
grouped the first stalactites we have seen since entering 
River Hall. The scarcity of these ornaments in a cave so 
large as this has often excited remark. The explanation 



Mammoth Cave. 63 

probably is, that tbc massive limestone from wliicli it is ex- 
cavated is almost completely covered by a bod of sand- 
stone, tlirough which the water makes its way, not by per- 
colation, but through fissures and sink-holes. Hence the 
present dryness of large portions of the cave, and their 
lack of stalactites. The Infernal Kcgion is the odious 
name given to a miserably wet and disagreeable spot be- 
yond the Spring, and it does not surprise us to have Ser- 
pent Hall come next, where the guide points out the trail 
of the reptile on the wall overhead. Here also is the inner 
terminus of the Kew Discovery that leads by a dry path 
back to the Main Cave. In a side-cut called the Valley 
"Way, we find white masses of fibrous gypsum. Beyond 
the Hill of Fatigue stands the Great "Western, like the 
stern of an immense ship, with its rudder to the starboard. 
"We mount to a slender ledge between the Tale of Flowers 
and Rabbit-rock, and follow lihoda's Arcade for 500 yards, 
amid rare incrustations, to twin-domes, seldom visited be- 
cause so difficult of access. The one we enter is about GO 
feet in diameter, and opens into the other by a gothic 
window 150 feet above the floor. The guide climbs up to 
it, and burns magnesium, while we do the same below. 
Thus we are enabled to survey the long stalagmitic curtains 
that drape the sides, aud to catch a glimpse of the oval 
apex, 300 feet over us. This is Lucy's Dome — the loftiest 
natural dome yet discovered ! 

Silliman's Avenue (named for Prof. Silliman, of Yale 
College), ends in Ole Bull's Concert Hall, where the re- 
nowned violinist once gave a musical entertainment. 

Continuing our journey by a picturesque pass, known as 
El Ghor, we have successively brought to notice, the Fly 
Chamber, whose walls are singularly sprinkled with little 
crystals of black gypsum ; Suicide Rock, so-called " be- 
cause it hung itself;" Table Rock or the Sheep-shelter; 
the Crown, and other curiosities. Corinna's Dome, 9 feet 
wide and 40 high, rests directly over El Ghor; the Black 
Hole of Calcutta, is an ugly pit on the left of the pass; 
while a narrow avenue further on leads to Stella's Dome, 



04 Celchrated American Cancrns. 

250 feet liigli, and siiid to be very fine, though rarely vis- 
ited. 

El Ghormay be followed half a mile further, and is said 
to cominunieatc with Mystic' River — on what authority I 
do not know, for none of the guides could give informa- 
tion concerning it. "We leave the gorge at a small basin 
called Hebe's Spring, by climbing by a ladder up 20 feet, 
and going, one at a time, through a very uninviting hole 
in the roof; and thus we gain admittance to an upper tier 
of caverns. When the last man is through, Tom burns 
blue fire, and we are surprised to find ourselves in a vine- 
yard — the famous Mary's (or Martha's) Vineyard ! Count- 
less nodules and globules simulate clusters on clusters of 
luscious grapes, burdening hundreds of boughs and gleam- 
ing with party-colored tints through the dri})ping dew. Xo 
covetous hand is permitted to gather this marvelous vint- 
age. By a detour one may reach a natural chapel, named 
by an enraptured priest, the Holy Sepulcher; there are 
tine stalactites also in the vicinity. 

Leaving this enchanted ground we soon enter Washing- 
ton Hall, which is but a smoke-stained lunch-room, strewn 
with relics of hundreds of dining-parties, while along its 
walls are the sharp fragments of numberless bottles that 
have survived their usefulness. We find that servants 
from the hotel have anticipated our coming, and have 
spread for us an abundant meal. Vigorous exercise whets 
the appetite, and we leave but few remnants for the rat;'. 
Cans of oil are kept here, and while we dine the guides 
trim and fill the lamps. 

The ceiling of the next room is dotted with hemispheri- 
cal masses of snowy gypsum, each of which is from 2 to 
10 inches in diameter, looking like snow-balls hurled 
against the wall and sticking there. 

A charming special trip is from this point down Marion 
Avenue, said to be a mile and a half long. It is from 20 
to GO feet wide, has a clean, sandy floor, and a clouded 
ceiling. At its farther end it has two branches. That on 
the left leads to Zoe's Grotto. The other branch leads to 



31" mm of h (yirr. g5 

a Paradise where all the flowers arc fair and crystalline, 
and which, in the opinion of some of the gnides, is the 
most beautiful place in the whole cave. Portia's Parterre 
is of the same general description ; while Dighy's Dome is 
remarkable simply because it cuts through to the sandstone. 

The regular route takes us, however, next into that 
treasure-house of alabaster brilliants known as Cleveland's 
Cabinet. What words can picture forth its beauty? Im- 
agine symmetrical arches, of 50 feet span, where the fancy 
is at once enlivened and bewildered by a mimickry of 
every flower that grows in the garden, forest, or prairie, 
from the modest daisy to the flaunting helianthus. 

Select, for examination, a single one of these cave flow- 
ers — the " oulopholites " of the mineralogist. Consider the 
charms of this queenly rose that has unfolded its petals in 
Mary's Bower. From a central stem gracefully curl 
countless crystals, fibrous and pellucid; each tiny crystal 
is in itself a study ; each fascicle of curved prisms is won- 
derful ; and the whole blossom is a miracle of beauty. 

Now multiply this mimic flower from one to a hundred, 
a thousand, a myriad. Move down the dazzling vista, as 
if in a dream of Elysium — not for a few yards, or rods, 
but for one or two miles ! All is virgin white, except here 
and there a little patch of gray limestone, or a spot 
bronzed by some metallic stain, or again, as we purposely 
vary the lovely monotony by burning colored lights. Mid- 
way is a great floral cross overhead, formed by the natural 
grouping of stone rosettes. Floral clusters, bouquets, 
wreaths, garlands, embellish nearly every foot of the ceil- 
ing and walls; and the very soil sparkles with trodden 
jewels. The pendulous fringes of the night-blooming 
cereus are rivaled by the snowy plumes that float from 
rifts and crevices, forever safe from the withering glare of 
day-light. Clumps of lilies, pale pansies, blanched tulips, 
drooping fuchsias, sprays of asters, spikes of tube-roses, 
wax-leaved magnolias, — but why exhaust the botanical 
catalogue? The fancy finds every gem of the green-house 
and parterre in this crystalline conservatory. Earlier vis- 
itors have described long sprays, like stalks of celery, run- 



QQ Ciichvatcd American Caverns. 

luug vinos, and iM-anches of a cliandclicr, and I had not 
bclicvod tlicni. But when I told my (hjubts to good old 
Mat, he kindly took nio to a spot where they were still to 
be seen — in Charlotte's Grotto. It lias been impossible to 
guard all these exquisite formations from covetous fingers, 
and too many have been smoked by the lamps of careless 
visitors. But happily the subtle forces of nature are at 
work to mend what man has marred, and to replace by 
fresh creations what has gone to the mineralogist's cabinet 
or the amateur's etagere. 

Cleveland's Cabinet terminates at the base of a pile of 
fragments fallen from the roof, and dignified by the name, 
of the Rocky Mountains. Its height does not exceed 100 
feet, and the gorge the other side of it, the Dismal Hollow, 
is only about 70 feet deep. 

The cave here divides int3 three branches. That on the 
right leads a long distance, and ends in Sandstone Dome, 
the roof of which, judging from its material, can not be far 
below the surface. The middle branch is named Franklin 
Avenue, from 30 to 60 feet wide, and about a quarter of a 
mile long. The path is very uneven and wild. It leads 
to a circular canopy 12 feet in diameter, called Serena's 
Arbor, thus described by a clerical writer in the New 
York Observer: "It is, of itself, floor, sides, roof, and 
ornaments, one perfect, seamless, stalactite, of a beautiful 
hue and exquisite workmanship. Folds or blades of sta- 
lactitic matter hang like drapery around the sides, reach- 
ing half way down to the floor ; and opposite the door, a 
canopy of stone projects, elegantly ornamented, as if it 
were the resting-place of a fairy bride." 

Tourists generally are content with taking the left-hand 
path, which leads them at once to Croghan's Hall, which 
is the end of the Long Route. This hall is about GO feet 
in diameter, and 35 feet high, and contains the finest sta- 
lactites in the cave, many of them, however, sadly disfig- 
ured. Some of them are translucent and very hard. On 
the right is the Maelstrom, a pit 20 feet wide, and said to 
be 175 feet deep. It is dye to the memory of a daring 
youth to tell how Mr. W. C. Prentice, son of the poet and 



31ammoth Cave. 67 

editor, George D. Prentice, descended this abyss in quest 
of adventures. 

As tliG guides tell the story, they furnished a rope by 
which the young hero was lowered, amid fearful and en- 
chanting scenes, then first lighted since creation's morning 
by the feeble rays of his solitary lamp. Midway he en- 
countered a waterfall, spouting from the wall, into whose 
sparkling shower he unavoidably swung. Escaping all 
dangers, he stood at last on the solid rock below. On his 
way up, he swung himself into a huge niche, whence he 
roamed through wide and wondrous chambers till checked 
by rocky barriers. Then returning to the place where he 
had fastened liis rope to a stalactite, he found it disentan- 
gled and dangling beyond his reach. Ingeniously twist- 
ing the wires of his lamp into a long hook, he caught hold 
again, and signaled to the guides to draw him up. It is 
said (believe it who may) that they did this with such zeal 
that the cable was fired by friction, and that one of the 
guides crawled out on the -beam and emptied a flask of 
water on the burning rope ! The whole story, with all its 
embellishments, is done into spirited verse by Rev. George 
Lansing Taylor. The hero himself, whose life was so 
miraculously spared, finally sacrificed it during the late 
war. Prentice has had at least one imitator, if not two, 
who accomplished the descent into the Maelstrom, but 
without his adventures. 

A dog-story worth telling is connected with the last trip 
I made to the end of the Long Route, in 1881, as it otters 
some striking peculiarities. Many a dog will bravely fol- 
low his master amid tangled forests and lofty hills, that 
will refuse to go with him into a dark and silent cave. 

Jack, the old house-dog at the hotel, is not an exception 
to this rule; for he has long had the habit of escorting 
guests as far as the Iron Gate. There he waits till all 
have gone in, and then trots home again, his duty done. 
But Jack has had a companion in his old age. 

" We call him Brigham,'" explains William, " 'cause he's 
Young, you know ! " 

From the first Briffham seemed to have no fear of dark- 



68 Celebrated American Caverns. 

ness. The two dogs would trot side by side, as far as the 
Iron Gate ; but there they wouhl part. Jack would re- 
turn, as usual, to the hotel ; while Brigham would push 
on into the cave. The latter grew to be a great favorite 
with the guides ; and Manager Ivlett warned us not to lose 
him when we took him in with us. 

The day that Brigham went with us on the Long Route, 
he e:rew very weary, and cared less for the lovely arches of 
cave flowers than for some cozy nook, where he might 
curl down for a naj^. Soon after lunch in Washington 
Hall he was missing, and did not come at our repeated 
calls. 

"Perhaps he has gone ahead to Echo river," said I, 
" and it^ waiting for us there." 

"Like enough," said William, "I hadn't thought of 
that." 

But no bounding form or joyful bark welcomed our ap- 
proach. The echoes answered to our calls, as if a thou- 
sand voices were crying for Brigham, as well as we ; and 
our whistling was repeated, as if all the spirits of the cave 
had been let loose for an ^olian concert. 

Plainly the dog was lost! William thought Brigham 
might track us as far as the river; but that on reaching 
the water he would lose the scent and not try to swim 
across. Lighting a freshly filled lamp, he set it on a ledge 
at the entrance to a passage called Purgatory, by which, 
with only a little swimming, the dog might make his way 
around the river. 

Sadly we returned to the hotel, where the announce- 
ment of the loss caused a sensation. Early the next morn- 
ins; a party crossed Echo river, and there they were met 
by Brigham, who returned in the boat with them to this 
side. Shortly, however, he again disappeared, and was 
left to his fate. 

Nothing was seen of him all that day. This time, of 
deliberate choice, he remained a second night under 
ground. The next morning Jack, too, was missing, and 
was found at the Iron Gate, exchanging experiences with 
Brigham, who was still behind the bars ! 




Tlie Uurkicrew. 



Mammoth Cave. 69 

Our curiosity led us to examine Brigham's tracks. Wc 
found that he had followed our trail, step by step, his only 
guide, of course, being his sense of smell. Thus he had 
tracked us, over soft mud-banks and mellow nitrous earth, 
ridges of sand and heaps of stone, from Echo river to the 
Corkscrew, by many a spot where a single misstep w^ould 
have sent the poor lonely creature plunging downward in 
darkness to inevitable death. On reaching the Corkscrew 
he did not seem to have hesitated an instant, but climbed 
up through that intricate and hazardous pass, where most 
,men v/ould be in confusion even with a lamp and a map of 
the cave. I could not learn that the dog had ever been 
that way before ; and when he went in with us he entered 
by the way of the Deserted Chambers. 

By contrast with this perfect and fearless operation of 
instinct (which Prof, Brewer cites as a case of " orienta- 
tion"), the story may be told of Old Mat's escape under 
somewhat similar circumstances. 

Once, during troublous times. Old Mat was at work 
near the pits when he heard some young men coming with 
song and with shout, as if they had been taking more 
wine than was for their good. The ex-slave thought that 
" discretion was the better part of valor,'' and hid in a 
crevice, put his lamp out, and quietly waited for the rev- 
elers to pass by. On coming forth from his hiding-place 
he found that he had no matches, and therefore could not 
re-light his lamp. 

The hour was late, and he feared lest a long time might 
elapse before help should come ; he therefore determined 
to make his way out in the dark. Feeling cautiously 
along with his staff, he went safely until it suddenly 
dropped into a pit of unknown depth. Brave as Mat is 
known to be, he fell in a swoon, and lay, no one knows 
how long, on the edge of the chasm. On coming to, he 
collected his wits as well as he could, and felt with his 
hands for the path. He presently found it, and proceeded 
on his perilous journey, making his way finally to the sur- 
face. Old Mat told me this story himself, as he and Brig- 



70 Celebrated American Caverns, 

ham iind I sat on the l)niik of the vciy ahyss in which he 
60 narrowly escaped linding a tomb. 

The full moon was riding in a cloudless sky, when we 
emerged from our last day's journey in the great cavern. 
We had, as usual, a practical proof of the purity of the 
exhilarating cave atmosphere, by its contrast with that of 
the outer world, which seemed heavy and suffocating. 
The odors of trees, grass, weeds and lloAvers were strange- 
ly intensified and over-powering. The result of a too sud- 
den transition is frequently faintness and vertigo. The 
custom is to linger awhile on the threshold, where the. 
outer and inner airs mingle. Resting thus, on rustic seats, 
near the entrance, my companions and I interchanged our 
views concerning this wide subterranean realm whose 
secrets we had been exploring. Tom said we had tramped 
to and fro, in and out, not less than a hundred miles; and 
there was none to dispute him ! We had gained less defi- 
nite knowledge than we had anticipated ; and had a surfeit 
of conjectures, estimates and mysteries. We were grateful, 
however, for the impressions we had received, and for the 
memories retained of wonderful scenes and strange adven- 
tures. Feelings akin to friendship had sprung up within 
us for Mammoth Cave; and it Avas with positive regret 
that we finally turned away from the fern-fringed chasm 
lying there in the soft moonlight, where the sparkling 
cascade throws i^oarly drops from the mossy ridge, au"d 
spreads its mist like a ailver veil. 



MAMMOTH CAYK HOTEL 

Is situated in Edmonson County, Kentucky, on the south side of Green lliver, on 
a plateau of 7:^5 feet elevation above the Atlantic. Travel to this renowned re- 
sort is facilitated by the Louisville and Nashville llailroad and its various branches, 
embracing the whole South and connecting with all the principal railroad lines 
of the country. The Great Southern Railroad is unrivaled for its safely, speed 
and comfort. Three Express Trains leave its northern and southern termini daily, 
and connect at Cave City, Ky., with astaire line to Mammoth Cave. Those holding 
tiirough tickets are entitled to stop over at the Cave within the limit of their 
tickets. 

The road from Cave City to Mitmmoth Cave winds among the hills and across 
the high table lands, passing through large, finely wooded tracts to the Green River 
JJluffs, on which the Hotel is situated. 

The IIoTKL, surrounded by a verdant lawn and shade trees, is a spacious build- 
ing, and with its wing of cottages attached, furnishes comfortable and ample accom- 
modations to visitors to the Cave. Six hundred feet of portico forms one of the most 
delightful promenades imaginable for summer weather. Aside from the attraction 
of the Cave as a natural wonder, this spot is a ciiarmino rc^-ort for those seeking 
quiet and recreation during the heated term. Attached to the Hotel are a spacious 
ball room, croquet, lawn tenni-, and archery grounds. The woods surrounding the 
Hotcil and grounds, w'th their deep shaded ravines, furnish delightful promenades, 
while Green R'.ver, at a short distance, oflers excellent opportunities for boating 
and fishing. 'l"he table is well supplied from the farms of the estate, and gives 
universal satisfaction t > those who appreciate wholesome aJid nutritious fare. 

The Cavk is reached I y a shady path down tire side of a beaitiful ravine, two 
hundred yards from the Hotel. Amid noble trees, hanging vines and fringing 
ferns is the entrance to this subterranean world of wonders. Its avenues, passages, 
don)Ps, pits and rivers, already explored, extend over more than one hundred miles 
on various levels, of wHi.h the lowest is 325 feet from the surface, and still many 
years of exploration are necessary before the main wonders will be known. 

Tourists, unless desiring a leisurely exploration, when special arrangements 
can be made, are conducted by competent guides t'> all interesting points of the 
Cave, arid for the convenience of visitors, the following routes are established: 

Grand Route — including .Main Cave, Rotunda, Giant's Coffin, Pits and Domes, 
Echo River and l)eyond to end of Cave, returning by way of the "Corkscrew," a 
distance (approximated) of twenty miles, $-i 00. 

Short Route — embracing Rotunda, Main Cave, Gothic Gallery, Star Cham- 
ber, Giant's Coffin, Pits and Domes, etc., a distance (approximated) of eight miles, 
*2 00. 

Mammoth Dome or Egyptiak Temple — with its beautiful Colonado and 
lofty vault, $1 00. 

CiiiKF City— eight hundred feet in length, three hundred feet in width, and 
one hundred and twenty leet high, covering an area of four acres, $1 00. 

White's Cave — a short distance from the Hotel, is also greatly admired on 
account of the beauty and variety of its stalnctitic formations, and is shown for 
$1 00. 

Bayard Taylor says of the Cave, after visiting all the great natural wonders 
of the Old and JSew "NVorlds : 

" I lind l)Ocn twelve liours under groimd, but I had gained an age in a strange and hith- 
erto unknown worhl; an age of wonderful ex])erien(!e, and an exhaustless store of sublime 
and lovely lueniories. Before taking a final leave of the Mammoth Cave, however, let me 
assure those who have followeil me througli it that no description can do justice to its 
sublimitv, or present a fair ]>ieture of its manifold wonders. It is tlie greatest natural 
curiosity" I have ever visited, Niagara not excepted, and he whose expe<'tiitioiis are not sat- 
isfied by its marvelous avenues, domes, and starry grottoes, must either be a fool or a dem- 
igod." 

A visit to Mammoth Cave at any season of the year is delightful. The tem- 
perature, fifty-nine degrees, being the same the year round. The most delicate can 
visit it without fear of cold, heat, or exhaustion. 

Transient Rates, $3 00 per Day. Liberal arrangements made by the week 
or month, and for PLxcursion parties over ten in number, both at Hotel and for 
Cave fees. 

For further information apply to Francis Klktt, ^lanager and Agent for 
Trustees of Mammoth Cave Estate, Mammoth Cave, Mammoth Cave P. O., Ky. 

Open all the year. 




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